HIGH ACHIEVERS: Diane Guignard, Wendy Alexis walk, sprint to world masters titles

By Martin Cleary

They are educators, but at opposite ends of their academic lives.

They are involved in the multi-dimensional sport of athletics, but they compete in totally opposite disciplines.

They are dedicated to their training schedules, but are miles, or is that kilometres, apart when it comes to their ages.

But one thing is for sure, race-walker Diane Guignard and sprinter Wendy Alexis are world champions, and the Ottawa athletes accomplished that golden feat at the world masters track and field championships, which ended this week in Daegu, South Korea.

Guignard, who started race walking three years ago this November with her Bytown Walking Club, stayed true to her homeland and won three gold medals wearing her Switzerland singlet in the women’s 35-39 age group and placed second overall in all three races.

Alexis, a member of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club, zipped through her four individual races, which totalled 92.77 seconds, and captured the 100-metre gold medal and the 200-metre silver medal and tied one championship record in the women’s 70-74 age class.

While Guignard was racing for Switzerland, she also was in the same field with three members of her Bytown club, who represented Canada.

Vanessa Johnson and Anne-Marie Joanisse, both of Bytown, and Kim Lachance of Quebec combined to win the gold medal in the team category in the 20-kilometre race walk.

The world masters track and field championships started Aug. 22 and the opening event was the women’s 10-kilometre race walk. Guignard dealt with the nerves of her first major international race and battled Vanessa Denisselle, one of France’s top open women’s race walkers, to what appeared to be an intentional dead-heat finish.

But international rules don’t allow first-place ties in race walking and race officials gave the nod to Denisselle, who was competing in the women’s 40-44 age group. As it turned out, Denisselle and Guignard not only finished one-two respectively in the overall race standings, but also won their respective age-group gold medals with matching times of 51 minutes, 33 seconds.

That would be the start of a trend as Guignard and Denisselle also were inseparable in their final two races.

“I was nervous because I wasn’t sure how the race would go,” Guignard said in a phone interview only a few hours after returning home from South Korea.

“When you registered for the championships, you put your race times in. We could look at the other registered runners … and get a general idea (of how you could do). There was one woman who was at the world championships in 2022. I was hoping to win, but you never know in a long race.”

Once the race started, Guignard and Denisselle took control of the pack and started a friendship as they chatted about a variety of getting-to-know-you topics, while following their own game plans.

“At the finish line, we both crossed the line together. But she touched the finish ribbon before me,” Guignard said, explaining Denisselle’s paper-thin win.

Guignard, however, was more confident in the 20-kilometre road race and the 5,000-metre race on the stadium track.

In the 20-kilometre road race, Guignard, who is a professor of mathematics at the University of Ottawa, achieved both of her goals by winning her age group and setting a personal-best time for that distance at 1:45:15.

She raced with Denisselle for most of the race before the French athlete pulled away for a 45-second win – 1:45:15 to 1:46:00.

“From 14 to 18 kilometres, it was tough. I had less energy,” Guignard, 38, explained. “I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted. But I was still happy in the end.”

The 5,000-metre track race was held under hot weather conditions. Guignard and Denisselle raced shoulder-to-shoulder once again and the difference at the finish was only 0.08 seconds in favour of the latter – 24:11.46 to 24:11.54. Besides the heat, they were racing again an unusual two days after the 20-kilometre test, which was stressful.

“I knew it would be tough because of the weather. It was really hot,” she added. “It was hard to get a PB.”

When the world masters championships ended, Guignard viewed it as a positive experience because of her race performances, making new friends and meeting athletes from around the world.

“I knew I had a good shot at medals in the 20K and 5,000 metres. I was a little bit more surprised by my 10K race,” Guignard said. “I was very happy with two gold and one silver. I have nothing to complain about.”

Racing in the women’s 40-44 category, Vanessa Johnson of Bytown had a championship to remember, winning three individual medals along with her team gold medal.

Johnson was second in her age class in the 10-kilometre race in 1:05:52, third in the 20-kilometre race in 2:18:08 and third in the 5,000-metre track race in 32:50.00. In her 20-kilometre race, she achieved a rare negative split, where she was faster in the second 10 kilometres than the opening 10 kilometres – 1:09:58 to 1:08:10.

Bytown’s Anne-Marie Joanisse raced in the women’s 50-54 division and had a best result of sixth in the 10-kilometre race in 1:14:01. She also was eighth in the 5,000-metre track race in 36:52.16 and 11th in the 20-kilometre test in 2:40:01.

Annie Cormier of Bytown was fifth in the women’s 10-kilometre road race in 1:22:23, but stepped away from the other two races.

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Wendy Alexis, a retired elementary school teacher, gave remarkable performances as a sprinter in the women’s 70-74 class.

After matching the world masters championship 100-metre record by winning her heat in 14.70 seconds, Alexis, 71, led her peers to the finish line with a gold-medal effort of 14.84 seconds.

In the 200 metres, Chile’s Sara Montecinos held the upper hand and won the final in 30.33 seconds. Alexis placed second for the silver medal in 31.51 seconds.

At this year’s national championships, Alexis won two gold medals and lowered her Canadian record to 14.41 seconds from 14.44 seconds, which was close to Montecinos’ world record of 14.37 seconds.

The Lions’ Lawrence Williams competed in a pair of sprint races in the men’s 55-59 category. He was 12th in the 400-metre semifinals in 59.66 seconds. He also placed 27th over 200 metres in 27.65 seconds.

TWO MORE NATIONAL MEN’S SENIORS TENNIS TITLES FOR SHAHEER MIKHAIL

Ottawa’s Shaheer Mikhail is unstoppable.

At the recent Steve Stevens national masters tennis championships held throughout Ottawa, Mikhail added two more titles to his resume in a brand new age class.

Mikhail, 85, made his debut in the men’s 85-plus class and went undefeated in four matches to win the singles and doubles championships.

He now owns eight national singles titles, dating back to his first in 2009 in the men’s 65-69 class, and seven doubles championships, going back to 2012 in the men’s 70-74 division.

In singles, the top-seeded Mikhail won all three matches over Raynald D’Aoust (7-5, 6-1), Robert Kerton (6-1, 6-0) and George Lyell Morfitt (6-0, 6-0).

Mikhail teamed with Morfitt to capture the men’s doubles crown by defeating Ali Bacha and D’Aoust (6-0, 6-2) and David Clendenning and Kerton (6-1, 6-0).

Christa Cameron of Ottawa and Michelle Hall were finalists in the women’s 70-74 doubles as they lost the final (6-3, 7-5) to top seeds Janice Clark and Janice Holloway.

Jim Cameron of Ottawa and Sydney Azancot, the third seeds, fell to top seeds Robert Bettauer and David James Fairbotham (6-4, 7-5) in the semi-finals of the men’s 70-74 doubles.

Ottawa’s Colin McAlpine, the 13th seed, won his first two men’s 65-69 class singles matches, but lost a tough three-setter (6-3, 3-6, 7-5) to fifth-seeded Kerry Mitchell in the quarterfinals. McAlpine upset top-seeded Robert Foy (6-1, 6-3) in the round of 16.

McAlpine was unable to play his fifth-/eight-place semifinal and Albert Deschamp won by walkover.

Former top Ottawa junior Martin Wostenholme, the fifth seed, reached the men’s 60-64 singles quarterfinals before being defeated (7-5, 7-5) by third-seeded Andre Lambert.

Ottawa’s Zhenya Kondratovsky and Kevin Drew lost to Gregory Diemer and Greg Rash (6-0, 6-2) in the men’s 55-59 doubles quarterfinals.

HOST RIDEAU CANOE CLUB POSTS NINE WINS AT CANMAS CHAMPIONSHIPS

On the heels of the Canoe Kayak Canada sprint championships at the Rideau Canoe Club, the masters-aged paddlers staged their one-day national championships under the CanMas banner.

Here is the list of the race champions from the local the Rideau, Ottawa River, Cascades and Carleton Place canoe clubs:

· Marielle Hawkes, Erin McDonnell, Jade Puddington and Allison Cathcart, Rideau, ABCD (25-44) women’s K4 200 metres, 46.210 seconds.

· Peter Patasi, Carleton Place, K75-79 men’s K1 200 metres, 53.362 seconds.

· Bevin Schmidt, Ottawa River, EFGH (45-66) M Va’a OC-1 200 metres, 57.335 seconds; EFGH (45-66) men’s surfski 200 metres, 49.288 seconds.

· Melissa Berry, Ottawa River, EFGH (45-64) women’s surfski 200 metres, 56.749 seconds.

· Anne-Marie Smith, Ottawa River, 1+ 65+ women’s surfski 200 metres, 1:10.308.

· Jane Labreche, Simon Olivier Auger, Matthew Clahane and Allison Cathcart, Rideau, ABCD (25-44) mixed K4 200 metres, 42.257 seconds.

· Jordan Scott, Carleton Place, ABCD (25-44) women’s surfski 200 metres, 1:05.256.

· Trevor Manning, Cascades, E+ (45+) novice men’s K1 200 metres, 55.332 seconds.

· Peter Osborne, Carleton Place, C (35-39) men’s C1 200 metres, 1:13.901.

· Lindsy Richardson, Adrian Richardson, Alexander Lipov and Simon Olivier Auger, Rideau, EFG (45-49) men’s K4 200 metres, 38.962 seconds.

· Chris Tabri, Rideau, A (25-29) men’s K1 200 metres, 42.118 seconds.

· Meghan Coutts, Carleton Place, ABCD (25-29) women’s novice K1 200 metres, 1:09.700.

· Chris Tabri, Marielle Hawkes, Jason Verge and Erin McDonnell, Rideau, ABCD (25-44) mixed CC4 200 metres, 54.799 seconds.

· Rideau, ABCD (25-44) mixed C-15 war canoe 500 metres, 2:10.794.

· Megan Holtzman, Rideau, EFGH (45-64) women’s Va’a OC-1 200 metres, 1:07.765.

· Linsy Richardson, Rideau, E (45-49) men’s K1 200 metres, 44.658 seconds.

· Amelie Beauchamp-Grandmaitre, Rideau, Para women’s open K1 200 metres, 1:17.518.