HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 3, #9 June 2014

There’s a delay at the judges’ table. Not the ideal way for Sam Zakutney to kick off his Canadian Gymnastics Championships. It just provides another moment to consider all that’s at stake.

He’s drawn the first starting order position for the vault event, so all eyes are on him. That part was to be expec-ted anyway. Just about everyone in the fieldhouse at Carleton University knows his name. Including Olympic gold medalist Kyle Shewfelt, just one of those watching on.

The crowd is speckled with young gymnasts wearing the same club jacket as him. He’s only 15 himself, but he’s an idol in their eyes nonetheless, and this is a rare oppor-tunity to show them what he can do in competition.

There was all the hype to think about. He’d been the star local attrac-tion at the pre-event press conference

to promote the event. The media was pumping up the hometown kid shoot-ing to become a national champion for a fifth consecutive year.

Indeed, there was a strong track record of success behind him. But this was his first time competing in the ju-nior high-performance category, and he was one of the younger athletes.

Then there was the vault event itself, which hadn’t been going well lately. Three weeks ago, he’d started practicing a new vault that carried the highest degree of difficult in the field. Proper execution had been quite in-consistent in training.

Finally he gets a wave from the judges to say they’re ready for him (instead of the usual green flag). He puts all the thoughts aside and focuses in on the task at hand. He charges down the runway, twists and flips his way through the air and lands solidly with the tiniest of hops.

Amidst cheers from the crowd, Zakutney pumps his fist in celebra-

tion – he’d absolutely nailed it.“I was really relieved and proud

of my vault,” the National Capital Boys Gymnastics Academy athlete reflects later. “It was kind of stressful to lead off everything, but it seemed like the moment I finished my vault, everybody had a good vault too. I guess I brought a good energy feel to it.”

It was a dream start to the com-petition for Zakutney, but the first day of competition didn’t quite pro-duce the desired storybook finish. A few falls during the floor exercise put the all-around title out of reach, but a solid rings routine – another recent struggle of his – on the final rotation clinched his place on the podium.

“It’s a little disappointing,” indic-ates the back-to-back winner of the Ottawa Sports Awards gymnast of the year honour. “It’s nice to win a medal, but the feeling is a little bit different. I guess it’s still a relief to come out with something.”

Zakutney says he did feel “a little bit tense,” which translated into less-than-perfect results.

“I don’t know. These types of competitions always screw with you,” signals Zakutney, who was in the unusual position of reading about himself the day his competition began. “The headline was something like, ‘Sam shining to win another na-tionals.’ I’m like, ‘Woah – that’s not too nerve-racking at all...’” the Grade 10 Franco-Cité high school student says sarcastically. “It’s not something to be scared of, and that really didn’t come into my head this time – maybe it was just the feel of everybody here.”

But Zakutney wouldn’t trade away his position at all. Being in the spotlight and having young athletes look up to him means he’s achieving the goals he pursues while training over 20 hours a week for his sport.

Local phenom misses 4th-straight all-around crown but retains title of national champion for 5th consecutive year with 2 event final victories to the delight of home Canadian Gymnastics Championships crowd

By Dan Plouffe

Quintuple champ

crowned

photo: steve kingsman

NO SCOREKEEPING ALLOWED

DISTANCE QUEENS SET RECORDS

DREAM WORLD CUP CANOE DEBUT

P. 7

P. 2

P. 12

Game results aren’t being tracked in Ontario’s new high-performance soccer league for its first season of U13 play.

Claire Smith is the first female to go un-der 10 minutes in the 3,000 m at the high school city finals, then a Grade 9 joins her.

Ben Tardioli’s name shoots onto the inter-national canoe radar in a hurry with a 4th- place finish in his first career World Cup.

COMMONWEALTH CRUNCH TIME

P. 6Segun Makinde runs a Commonwealth Games qualifying time, and 3 other local athletes are chosen for the Glasgow team.

Sam Zakutney dismounts from the paral-lel bars at the May 26-31 Canadian Gym-nastics Championships at Carleton Uni-versity. The 15-year-old National Capital athlete won the parallel bars event final in the junior high-performance category, and also earned a gold medal on vault. A role model for numerous young local gymnasts, Zakutney was crowned Cana-dian champion for the fifth year in a row.

GYMNASTICS continues on p.12

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BYTOWN STORM BULLETINRevolutionary underwater treadmill training at LiquidGym boosts Storm athletes

Traditionally, if an athlete was running in a pool, it was because they were recovering from an injury, but members of the Bytown Storm Triathlon Club are quickly discovering what some of the world’s elite en-durance athletes have already figured out – incorpor-ating a significant amount of training time on an under-water treadmill can produce big results.

“Their initial thought was, ‘Ah, it’s fake running,’” Storm coach Greg Kealey says of his athletes’ reaction to his proposed new training method at the six-month-old LiquidGym Therapy and Training Centre in Bells Corners.

“But even just part way through the first session, they really realized the strength benefits,” he recounts, high-lighting the additional resistance water provides, which can be further amped up by underwater jets. “And they didn’t feel the same fatigue and weight bearing on their legs, but we were still doing interval running.”

Kealey got his first taste of the innovative approach in an article by Alberto Salazar, the Oregon coach who directed the London 2012 Olympic 10,000 m gold and silver medalists to do 30% of their weekly running volume on underwater treadmills.

“If there are world-class coaches doing something that makes sense, then let’s try it,” Kealey reasons. “If Mo Farah and Galen Rupp are doing this, then it can’t be a bad thing.”

Hydrotraining allows athletes to increase their weekly mileage without increasing the risk of injury since they only feel around 20% of their regular body weight in chest deep water, thus reducing impact and promoting faster recovery.

The Storm’s Meagan Adams, who recently placed fourth in the senior girls’ 3,000 m at the national capital high school track championships, can attest to this.

“I find you’re less sore,” she says. “It’s still difficult to push through the water, but because you’re in the water, it’s not as hard on your body.”

Adams has only done a handful of sessions on the

underwater treadmill, but she’s already sold on the idea.“I’d never seen anything like it before in my life,”

highlights the Grade 11 St. Joseph Catholic High School student. “Everything is new and different. It’s the coolest thing you’ll ever see.”

ENDURANCE ATHLETE HOME AT LIQUIDGYMHaving recently opened in November 2013, the $1.2

million LiquidGym facility offers a broad range of re-hab and therapy services along with its athletic train-ing opportunities. The first of its kind and magnitude in the area, the centre has eight Hydroworx underwater treadmills, 12 Hydrorider aquabikes and an Endless Pool swim current – all of which are equipped with video tools to help analyze proper form.

LiquidGym will soon add more high-performance training elements outside of the water, such as addi-tional weights, “dryland” stationary bikes and tread-mills, and make it a destination for the region’s endur-ance athletes.

“It’s pretty unique,” notes Kealey, who’s especially enthused about the prospects of hydrotraining since running is the primary cause of injury in his triathletes. “We’re starting to see the potential of utilizing that as much as we can. I want to see how much it can help with these guys.”

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Running phenoms raising the barHIGH SCHOOLS

She’s already left her mark in the his-tory books, and she’s still got another year ahead of her. Grade 11 Glebe Collegiate In-stitute student Claire Smith became the first female runner to break the 10-minute barrier in the 3,000 metres at the national capital high school track-and-field championships.

She cruised in well below the previous re-cord with her time of 9 minutes, 46.75 seconds. But her status as Ott-awa’s best-ever high school distance runner quite possibly may be short-lived.

A week later at the east re-gional qualifying meet for the OFSAA provincial champi-onships, Shona McCulloch of Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School joined Smith in the sub-10 minute club, blasting Smith’s previ-ous midget girls’ record by nearly 35 seconds in 9:59.58.

Glebe Gryphons and Ot-tawa Lions club coach Kirk Dillabaugh believes that the two standouts are indeed the top girls’ prospects to ever come through Ottawa high schools.

“By their times they certainly are,” enthuses Dillabaugh, emphasizing how impressive McCulloch’s feat is for a Grade 9 student in par-ticular. “Shona is one of only two girls to break 10 minutes in the 3,000 metres.”

Whether veterans or fledglings at their chosen events, there was drama in abundance as Terry Fox Ath-letic Facility hosted the qual-

ifying competitions for the June 5-7 OFSAA championships in Mis-sissauga.

Cairine Wilson’s Alexia Lamothe and Sac-red Heart’s Alexandra Tierney put on numerous great shows as they battled toe-to-toe in senior girls’ hurdles races.

Tierney edged Lamothe for a city finals record in the 400 m hurdles before Lamothe triumphed in record time in the 100 m hurdles final. They replicated the same results at the east regionals, with Tier-ney establishing a new 400 m hurdles benchmark of 1:00.95.

There were several other local east regional re-cord-setters. Sprinter Sadian Hinds-Blackstock took after her Grade 9 Longfields dis-tance-running counterpart McCulloch with a new midget girls’ 200 m mark.

Bell’s Colle Thompson and South Carleton’s Shyvonne Roxborough both dipped under the junior girls’

100 m record, arriving in a virtual dead heat in 12.35 and 12.36 respectively.

St. Mark’s Sarah Jackson beat Tierney’s junior girls’ 300 m hurdles record by .49 seconds in 44.60. And Glebe’s junior girls’ relay team of Ar-den McAlpin, Remy Wade, Megan Frost and Maya Kamah knocked a full second off the 4x100 m record with their 50.56 clocking.

She didn’t set a record, but Glebe’s Alexa Livingstone put in a distinctive performance nonetheless at east regionals.

“Alexa raced 6,000 metres in less than 24 hours,” smiles Dillabaugh, whose athlete placed third in both the senior girls’ 1,500 m and 3,000 m, and won the open girls’ steeplechase. “It was an im-pressive performance.”

By Anne Duggan

photo: steve kingsman

Both record break-ers, Alexandra Tierney (centre, en route to a 400 m hurdles east re-gion record) and Alexia Lamothe (right) finished a flash apart in their senior girls’ sprint and distance hurdles battles.

Visit us online at SportsOttawa.com for more detailed coverage and up-to-

Check out our photo gal-lery from city finals on our Facebook page.

date news from spring OFSAAs.

Adam Simac realizes most Canadian kids don`t grow up with dreams of becoming a pro-fessional volleyball player. But the Ottawa native has seen signs of his sport`s increased popularity in Canada as his men`s national team also be-comes stronger year after year.

“I know most people are used to playing with hockey sticks here, but hopefully if we keep win-ning and encouraging kids to play, then maybe more of them will think about playing volley-ball,” Simac says.

The veteran middle and his Team Canada mates added to their always-growing list of ac-complishments by breezing to a NORCECA continental qualifying tournament title to clinch

a spot in the Aug. 30-Sept. 21 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in Poland.

“It was a good chance to see in a competition setting how much guys have improved since their pro seasons,” indicates Simac, whose opponents at the May 16-19 event in Mississauga only once reached 20 points in any set against Canada. “I think we’ve all taken a step forward.”

Canada also kicked off its 2014 World League campaign on the right foot May 31-June 1 in Cal-gary, downing Finland 3-0 and 3-1.

Not long removed from a Swiss league cham-pionship with his Lugano pro club, Simac didn`t appear in the Calgary matches, but figures to be a major contributor as the Canadians, ranked 11th in the world, seek to build on their fifth-place performance in last year`s World League event,

which included a ground-breaking triumph over even-tual champion Russia.

“(Now) is the best Adam’s ever played for the national team,” indic-ates Canadian coach Glenn Hoag. “He’s a very import-ant player because physic-ally he’s probably one of the highest and smartest block-ers we have. And he’s very well-liked by the guys, being one of the older players they listen to.”

Despite how much Simac has loved his time playing in Europe and for his country, the 30-year-old says he’s unsure how long he can keep up the physical commitment required for volleyball.

“My goal would be to qualify for Rio (2016 Olympics) and do well,” signals Simac, who will soon marry former women`s national team player Ashley

Voth. “I think that would be a great time, after which I can call it a career with the national team.”

Hoag is also hopeful Simac will be a contrib-uting veteran in Rio. What impresses the coach of the Gatineau-based national team most about Simac is his motivation to constantly become a better player.

“He’s had to work hard to get to this point,” Hoag says of the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School grad who never played club volleyball be-fore joining Queen`s University. “Being an older player in age, Adam’s still very focused on the team’s success and knowing that his own skills have to be maintained and improved.”

Simac says he maintains that level of commit-ment because he wants to keep seeing his country grow in the sport that’s given him so much.

“During the national anthems, I’ll usually take about 30 seconds just to soak it all in,” un-derlines the 6` 8” tall player. “I make sure I do that every time just to acknowledge the feeling that I’m representing my country and make every game special. And looking at how much we’ve grown together over the years, whenever I have to stop playing, I know volleyball in Canada will be in good hands.”

3

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Timothy Lewis and Kathryn Grant of the Ottawa National Diving Club athletes put in a groundbreaking performance at the May 9-11 Summer Provincials in Windsor, earning out-standing diver honours in the boys’ and girls’ 11 & under divisions.

“They were spectacular,” smiles ONDC head coach Kathleen Murphy. “They peaked at the right time. They were focused. We always set goals for a score at each meet, and we knew that once we reached our goals that the res-ults would take care of themselves.”

It was the first time either 10-year-old diver had earned an overall crown at a top tier provincial competition.

“I was so happy,” Grant recalls. “I was jumping up and down. It was really cool. I haven’t ever (won out-standing diver) before, so it was a really big accomplishment.”

Grant dominated the 3 m and plat-

form competitions, improving on her scores from the Spring Provincials – hosted by ONDC in March at the Nepean Sportsplex – by 13.4 and 11 points in each of those events en route to a total score of 713.

“We’re practicing really hard,” indicates the Grade 4 Chapman Mills Public School student. “I feel like I’m taking a step up every single day.”

Lewis felt “really prepared” for the meet as well, bettering his spring scores across the board in each event. That’s helped him build confidence in advance of the July 11-13 Speedo Junior Development National Cham-pionships in Montreal, which will be Lewis’ second nationals experience.

“I feel good. I’m pretty sure I’ll do well,” says the Grade 4 Elmdale Public School student who’s eyeing a top-12 finish so that he can compete at the CAMO International later this summer. “I was really nervous last year because I’d never been there be-

fore. Now I can get on with it and do well.”

With a couple top performances of her own at provincials, including a 3 m bronze, Emma Corrigan is another ONDC athlete setting herself up well

for her second trip to nationals.

MAJOR MOMENT FOR RISING CLUB

The Summer Provincials were held at the new aquatics facility in Windsor – built as a training venue

for the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, much like the Nepean Sportsplex was created in advance of the Montreal 1976 Olympics. Windsor later hosted a May 30-June 1 FINA/NVC Diving World Series event, where ONDC coach Brennan Villemaire was one of 15 up-and-coming coaches selected to take part in developmental sym-posium along with Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club’s Alexandra Slattery.

ONDC was founded in 2007 with Villemaire as its only member. To see a new generation now bringing home outstanding diver awards, with the former star helping them along, rep-resented a major accomplishment for the club.

“It is a big milestone,” signals Murphy, Villemaire’s mom. “After six or seven years of building talent and you find that they’ve finally got where you want them to be, it’s rewarding all the way around. I’m really proud of the work the club has done.”

Ottawa National sweeps division outstanding diver awardsBy Dan Plouffe

COMMUNITY CLUBS

Timothy Lewis & Kathryn Grant.

photo: dan

plouffe

Team Canada volleyball player seeks to culminate career with 2016 Olympics appearanceBy Jon Willemsen Adam Simac.

photo: fivb

Hughes hot for Fury

photo: steve

kingsmanThe Ottawa Fury are off to a 2-0 start in their 2014 USL W-League cam-paign thanks to two 2-0 home victories over Quebec and Kitchener-Water-loo on May 24 and 31 at Carleton University. Lauren Hughes, an Ottawa native and past Fury youth academy player, appeared in both matches as a substitute, scoring her team’s second goal in the season opener.

It was a title over three years in the mak-ing for the tight-knit Ottawa Titans, but one that was well worth the wait. Having never finished better than third in their previous National Club Championships appearances, the Titans pre-vailed in their final opportunity to compete to-gether at the 18-and-under level, downing the Pacific Storm 7-4 in the May 11 gold medal match in Quebec City.

“The guys, I’ve been practicing with them for almost four years now, and I’ve really learned to appreciate their skill,” signals Titans captain and goalie Yorek Hurrelmann, emphasizing that all players contributed on the deep squad. “In the future I’m going to miss playing on such an elite team. It was really quite something.”

Even if it was a last hurrah of sorts for the team made up mostly of high school seniors, many players could wind up being teammates again as they represent their country – about half the team’s roster already boast experience with youth national team programs.

“We are strong individually, but what puts us apart from others is our team discipline,” highlights head coach Jerry Tesanovic. “Their

‘water polo intelligence’ means they are able to play in some advanced tactical set-ups. On top of that, we have an exceptional goalie, we have some exceptional shooters and some of the best hole sets (centre forwards) in the country.”

Entering the tournament, the Van-couver-based Storm were favoured based on their perfect record in National Development

Premier League play, which included wins over Ottawa-Gatineau’s combined entry. But come nationals, the Titans beat the Storm 7-4 in the preliminary round before again earning a vic-tory by the same score in the final.

“That (first win) really boosted our confid-ence,” notes tournament MVP Euan Scoffield, who scored five goals in the championship

game. “We thought, ‘we just beat the undefeated team in the (NDPL). We can actually do this, we can go all the way.’”

Titan Duncan Kennedy was also named to the tournament all-star team, while Tesanovic was chosen as top coach. While the 18U level has usually been the last time players compete for their youth clubs, a format change for next year may allow the group to return as a 19U entry. Regardless, they’ve got a trophy and last-ing memories from their culminating triumph.

“The boys were truly ambassadors of our city, both in the pool and out of the pool,” Tes-anovic adds. “They made everyone proud.”

LOCAL PLAYERS ON TO WORLD LEAGUE FINAL

Earning the next-best local result at the Ca-nadian championships were the Capital Wave 16U girls, who placed eighth out of 14 teams at their May 29-June 1 tournament in Montreal.

Competing for the Canadian senior men’s team, Titans-bred John Conway and Alec Taschereau helped lift Canada into the eight-team World League Super Final, to be held June 16-21 in Dubai, thanks to their fifth-place per-formance in the intercontinental round, which wrapped up June 1 in Shanghai.

4

Water polo players cap youth careers as national champsBy Eric Thompson

COMMUNITY CLUBS

Ottawa Titans 18U men.

photo provided

Nepean & Gloucester sweep top synchro provincials spots

Local synchro swimmers showed that Ottawa has arrived as the hotbed of the sport in the province as the Nepean and Gloucester clubs finished 1-2 in the aggregate standings at the 2014 Ontario Open Age Group Syn-chronized Swimming Champion-ships May 21-25 in Windsor.

There were abundant podium performances for the Ottawa ath-letes in different categories and events, but perhaps the most unique result came in the age 13-15 figures competition, where sil-ver medalist Kristin Stremlaw lead a Nepean and Gloucester string of second- through seventh-place fin-ishers in the 215-athlete event.

“I was really happy with what I was able to accomplish,” sig-nals Stremlaw, who also teamed up with 13-15 solo silver medalist Olivia Jensen-Large to win gold for Nepean in the 13-15 duet.

“I still get nervous before big events like these,” adds the veteran of five provincial championships meets. “But I just know that I have to stay focused and don’t think of it as the biggest meet of the year.”

Stremlaw, a former gymnast who credits her past training in that sport as a key to her synchro suc-cess, felt no ill effects despite the long trip to Windsor – the furthest she’s traveled for a competition.

“The whole experience was a lot of fun,” highlights the 13-year-old who competed at a stunning new $77 million aquatics facility. “It was really cool being in Wind-sor.”

Nepean’s Jade Warren was also a big winner at the event, capturing gold in the 11-12 figures category. It was the biggest victory yet in her young synchro career of four years.

“I used to watch my mom (swim) and I just fell in love with it and I wanted to try it,” recalls Warren, who will compete once more this season, back at her home pool for the Gloucester-organized Ontario 12 and Under Trillium Championships June 14-15 at Nepean Sportsplex.

“It is going to be my first time doing solo routines, so I am a little nervous,” the 12-year-old in-dicates. “All eyes are on you and everyone is just watching you. But I am going to train harder and just keep practicing and go out there and do my best.”

Gloucester’s Meaghan Lapierre produced the top result for her club by placing second in the 10U figures event.

It was a mix of nerves and ex-citement for the second provincials of Lapierre’s career, she recounts,

but knowing the level of competi-tion she’d face was valuable.

“I just tell myself before I go out there, ‘I’m going to rock it’,” smiles Lapierre, who also earned duet bronze with partner Emma Marie Blackburn. “I am always excited to go out there and prove to people what I can do, and I am really happy with what I was able to do this year.”

Gloucester’s Abigail Walker says she was impressed with the club’s overall performance.

“We all did our best, we gave it our all,” surmises the fourth-place finisher in the 13-15 figures com-petition. “The whole event for us went so well. We all worked hard all year to get to this point and in the end, it paid off.”

Other medalists included Gloucester’s Maddie Berry (bronze, 16-20 solo), Nepean’s 10U team (bronze), Gloucester’s 11-12 team (silver), Nepean’s 13-15 team (gold), Nepean’s 16-20 team (gold) and Gloucester’s 16-20 team (bronze).

By Anil Jhalli

While the pro basketball world watched the Toronto Raptors’ “North-ern Uprising” during their breakthrough run this season, a pair of local basket-ball teams made a similar impact on the Ontario basketball scene.

It’s somewhat rare for Ottawa entries to earn a spot in the top tier for the pro-vincials championships, but it’s virtu-ally unheard of to have two competing in Division 1, let alone two clubs from the same corner of town. But that was the scenario for the Capital Xellles and Gloucester-Cumberland Wolverines at the May 9-11 Under-19 Girls Ontario Cup in Kitchener-Waterloo.

“At our level and at other levels, there are a lot more teams from the Hamilton and Toronto areas,” notes Xelles club president Ian Faris. “It’s good to get that credit and represent Ottawa.”

Ranked 11th at the event, the St. Matthew Catholic High School-based Xelles knocked off #1 Guelph en route to a 4-1 record overall and the ‘B’ side title.

“It has been such a pleasure to coach this group of girls and we are so proud of how they have developed as players and as a team,” says Xelles U19 Junior head coach Chris Wakefield. “We truly believe that the secret to our success this season has been in how much the girls like each other. As a result, the girls play such a team game and play hard so as not to let each other down. They always support each other, in successes and failures.”

Without several players due to injury and family situations, Gloucester had a tougher run at the provincials, going winless.

“Generally, the season was a success-ful one,” maintains Wolverines coach Dean Tanasijevic. “Players enjoyed the tournament and clearly demonstrated that the hard work throughout the season paid off and that they are well set on their path to university hoops.”

The Kanata Youth Basketball Asso-ciation Ottawa Next Level U15 Midget boys earned the next-best local result at May’s provincial championships, win-ning silver in Div. 2.

East end excels provincially

By Alex Quevillon

photo provided

photo: anil jhalli(From left) Nepean’s Elise Bordeleau, Kristen Stremlaw & Jade Warren. Capital Xelles

U19 girls team.

A rapidly rising star on the Ca-nadian badminton scene, Andrew D’Souza has become accustomed to celebrating plenty of victories on the courts, but it was actually a defeat that got the Ottawa native hooked on the sport.

“When I was 12, my dad took me to a school gym with his friends and I sort of took an interest in the sport. I played a tournament before and I won it easily so I thought ‘whatever’,” the 19-year-old recounts. “But then I played a tournament here (at the RA Centre) and lost horribly and realized what a challenge it really is.”

Seven years later, D’Souza is now one of the most promising play-ers in the country, ranked second in Canada, just behind fellow Ottawa player Joseph Rogers.

While fellow Canadians Toby Ng, Michelle Li and Alex Bruce competed at the London 2012 Olympic Games, D’Souza was back home winning his first national ju-nior title, but he’ll soon be stand-ing alongside the three Olympians at a major international multi-sport event for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

“I was kind of nervous that I

wouldn’t make it,” highlights the silver medalist from the 2013 Yonex USA International doubles compet-ition along with Ottawa’s Sergiy Shatenko. “But I actually pulled ahead by a good amount of points.”

The next step in D’Souza’s journey will be an exhibition match against Liam Woodside on June 13 at the RA Centre to raise funds for his upcoming self-funded trip.

“I want to make it big here in Canada and North America,” the world’s 234th-ranked singles player says of his long-term goals. “I really want to get a big result for our coun-try just so everyone can see that bad-minton really is something (big).

“Hopefully with those results, it’ll increase the funding in Canada.

I want to do that for future genera-tions.”

D’Souza’s self-assigned mis-sion in badminton is to get the sport to be understood and appreciated. Badminton, he notes, is sometimes viewed as a “backyard sport” in North America – an attitude that seems to be virtually a problem of the West. In Asia and Europe, the sport is well-televised and the crowds are large.

“I wish it was better publicized,” signals D’Souza, who is coached by former pro Mike Bitten, a 1992 Olympian. ““I want to make bad-minton more well-known.”

D’Souza’s upcoming debut at a major international multi-sport games will help a little bit in that

quest, but he’s eyeing the 2020 Olympics as his real time to shine.

“I want to come back with a medal,” states the Univer-sity of Ottawa human kin-etics student. “If one player can make a mark, then it’ll help the sport.”

5

Rising badminton star gets Games nodBy Ali Rodriguez

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The 16 members of the West Ott-awa Warriors U12 boys’ soccer team recently returned from a 10-day trip to London, England, bringing back with

them some new playing styles, new lessons and new chants.

The Warriors were overseas from May 1-10, training at Chelsea FC and Fulham FC academies, playing several exhibition games, and taking in an English Premiere League game between Liverpool and Crystal Palace.

“Trip of a lifetime,” surmises coach Steve Rosettani. “From a soccer perspective, they got to see the Premiere League clubs and they saw different philosophies in training. They could really notice it – Chelsea was a lot more strict and rigid in terms of the set-up of the drills. They were so well run and really well organized.

“Fulham was a lot more small-sided games, and exploring. It was great as coaches because we got to see both sides.”

On top of all the soccer knowledge the group gained, they also added a new pre-game tradition.

“They learned a whole bunch of chants at the Crystal Palace-Liverpool game,” Roset-tani laughs. “They all sing the chants now when we do our warm ups. It was a lot of fun.”

The Premiere League contest was the consensus highlight of the trip for the group that had never before seen a live EPL match, but another big hit was the Lillywhites soccer

store, which the players visited almost daily.“They loved it there and wanted to keep

going back,” Rosettani recounts. “On one of the floors was all the World Cup garb, so most kids have at least three different jer-seys.”

It was a fairly packed schedule, with the players and their parents fitting in trips to downtown London when a spare moment presented itself.

“The best thing was, when I said ‘go to bed’ to any of the kids, the lights would be out at 9 o’clock, and they were asleep by 9:01,” Rosettani details. “They were just exhausted every day.”

This was the second Warriors team to make the English tour, on the heels of last year’s U12 group. Coach Marius Chirila found a UK tour group called Complete Sport Solution, and organized the event. The plan was to make the trip a U12 tradition, but new Ontario Soccer Association travel restrictions may force it to become an event for older teams.

“We will continue on,” Rosettani pledges. “We might add some older groups to go, like the girls in particular because that would be something cool for them as well.”

Training in some of the world’s most renowned soccer factories certainly provided a great jump-start to the Warriors’ season, but Rosettani feels there’s a even larger be-nefit than that.

“The most important part of all of this was the bonding that these kids had,” he highlights. “A lot of them were friends be-fore, but now they have really good, strong friendships. And they’ll have these memories forever.”

West Ottawa Soccer ScoopU12 Warriors ride high into season after soccer ‘trip of a lifetime’

photo provided

Andrew D’Souza.

6

Lions gun down Games standardsELITE

A pair of Ottawa Lions sprinters got a blistering start to their outdoor seasons in May, establishing new per-sonal-best times as they all-but-officially punched their tickets to the July 23-Aug. 3 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

Segun Makinde posted a Commonwealth Games ‘A’ standard qualifying time of 20.51 seconds in winning an early-May 200-metre race at Liberty University in Virginia, while Michael Robertson broke his 400 m club record for the third time in under 10 months at the May 31 Ottawa Springtime High Performance Meet, clocking in at 46.29.

Both athletes also joined the Canadian team for the in-augural IAAF World Relays event May 24-25 in Nassau, Bahamas – Makinde serving as an alternate for the 4x100 m team that clinched a place in the 2015 World Champion-ships with a sixth-place show-ing, and Robertson helping the Canadian 4x400 m crew earn a Commonwealth ‘A’ standard time in the heats en route to a

14th-place overall finish.“It was my first time in the

Bahamas and it was an excel-lent experience. Competing really well while staying at a beach resort is more than you can ask for,” signals 24-year-old Robertson, a 4x400 sil-ver medalist at last summer’s FISU world student games. “So many top calibre athletes, competing at a world class level and then letting loose a bit and hanging out on the beach definitely makes all the hard work and sacrifices we make worthwhile.”

For Makinde, dropping .11 off his previous best was “a good feeling” early in his

season.“I was just really thankful.

I had to give thanks to God and my coach (Glenroy Gil-bert) for all his help, as well as everyone at the Ottawa Lions,” says the 22-year-old graduate of Colonel By Sec-ondary School and the Uni-versity of Ottawa. “There’s still a lot of work to do, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.”

Another Lion, two-time Olympian Sultana Frizell, also reached a new standard in May, improving her Cana-dian women’s hammer throw record to 75.73 m at a meet in Tuscon, AZ.

By Arielle Follett

file photos

Michael Robertson (left) and

Segun Makinde.

7

OSU Force Academy ZoneD a v i d

Chung is ready to take the next step in an already i m p r e s s i v e and flourish-

ing soccer career, and for the U14-aged Ot-tawa South United Force player, that means trying to land a spot with Canada’s under-15 national team program.

The OSU standout is in Toronto for a June 1-6 national camp as the U15 men’s side readies for competition in September.

“We have all the best young soccer play-ers in the country coming out and really showing what they got,” reports Chung. “To be in that group, it is really a good feeling.”

Chung, who began playing soccer at age 3 and says he fell in love with the sport in-stantly, previously represented Canada in the 2012 Danone Nations Cup, a 40-country event that took him to Poland.

Most recently, the midfielder/striker show-cased his skills for the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer during a one-week visit along with OSU Club Head Coach Paul Harris.

“That was a big highlight for me,” signals Chung, who carries hopes of playing profes-sionally in Europe in the future. “Just to be there and around those players, it was such a big deal for me. It was amazing.”

During their stint in Vancouver, the OSU pair met up with Vana Markarian, who won Ottawa’s first Ontario Youth Soccer League title last summer with OSU before joining the Whitecaps youth academy in early 2014.

“This isn’t a fluke,” Harris highlights. “(Chung) isn’t the first player from our club to have a chance like this.”

Other players from the OSU Force Academy who have competed internation-

ally in the past year include Kris T w a r d e k (U17 Czech R e p u b -lic), Vana Markar ian ( U 1 7 C a n a d a ) and Zoom

Langwa (U16 Canada).Those trailblazers have set the stage for

numerous talented OSU prospects such as Chung to move on to higher levels of play, Harris notes.

Combined with one of the country’s best training atmospheres for young players to reach their soccer dreams at OSU, Chung’s work ethic has been key to building his bright future in the game, adds the former Everton FC academy coach.

“We as a group have such high hopes for David, and many others within our club,” Harris indicates. “He has really excelled and he has just taken everything we have given him and hasn’t looked back.”

A member of the Force’s undefeated U14 OYSL entry, Chung concurs that OSU has brought out the best in him.

“It is such a good club and I am so happy to be part of it,” states the Goulbourn Middle School student. “They are so organized, everyone is so great and helpful and I can’t say enough good things on how the coaches have helped me.”

Chung’s focus for the camp is on impress-ing another set of coaches and earning a spot on Team Canada.

“I like my chances,” he says, acknow-ledging nonetheless that there are many other talented players who also crave a spot on the team. “I’m not nervous because I know what I am capable of. I am just going to go out and show what I’ve got.”

OSU’s David Chung ready to compete for national team spot

A past representative for Canada’s Dan-one Nations Cup entry, OSU’s David Chung is now competing for a place on the Canadian U15 men’s soccer team.

David Chung, Paul Harris & Vana Markarian at Vancouver MLS training grounds.

August 1-4, 2014

The inaugural season of the Ontario Player Development League is officially underway, with the Nepean Hotspurs, Ottawa South United Force, Ottawa Fury and West Ottawa Warriors all making their de-buts in the province’s new high-per-formance soccer league.

With the OPDL’s arrival, there has probably never been as much interest in under-13 provincial youth soccer – the first age group to adopt the league that will eventually replace the promotion/relegation leagues in favour of admitting only clubs that meet stringent standards for facilities, coaching, administration and organ-izational financial stability.

After years of discussions and hype, the news that no scores would be recorded or standings caught plenty of people off-guard as they were keen to find out how each of the clubs fared in the first weeks.

The elimination of scorekeeping for younger age groups is a policy that’s been implemented – and now largely accepted in soccer circles – in recent years, but the decision to ap-ply it to a league that features com-petition for seven months of the year with a match every weekend shocked

many, but the local OPDL clubs were remarkably united in their support.

“It’s a great idea,” says West Ottawa head coach David Hannah. “Really, at 13 years old, what does winning a trophy or a medal actually mean? It’s a development league.

“What we’re trying to do is say, ‘Yeah, fine, make a mistake trying to build out from the back (instead of booting the ball aimlessly down-field) – it’s not the worst thing that

can happen.’ Then, we try to encour-age them to rectify that mistake next time. That’s what the league should be all about.”

OSU head coach Paul Harris doesn’t speak quite as strongly in support of the no-scorekeeping ap-proach, but notes that “people will always talk and (the scores) will get out there.”

“It doesn’t matter to me whether we record them or not – the players

still know,” highlights Harris, emphasizing that as a coach of young ath-letes, the scoreline is not a crucial focus for him. “Whenever I talk to my staff, I ask them, ‘How did we play? Who were the best players?’ and then the last thing is, ‘What was the result?’”

Hotspurs girls’ coach Adam Knight is fully on board with the no-scorekeeping concept, although he ac-knowledges that many reacted differently.

“It was definitely mixed feelings,” signals Knight, whose approach is simply to seek im-provement each week. “Some people say, ‘how can we teach them to be competitive?’

“To me, that’s the uneducated. Once upon a time, Copernicus said the world’s not flat. We know who won out there.”

HOW ARE LOCAL CLUBS PERFORMING?

The OSU Force boys have certainly spent the most time cel-ebrating successful strik-ing culminations out of

OPDL kicks off – scorekeeping barredBy Dan Plouffe

JUNIOR LEAGUES

Ottawa hosted its first Ontario Player Development League matches May 24.

photo: dan plouffe

the local OPDL entries, a few others are holding their own and showing they’re on par with most in the league, and a number are spending a great deal of time developing their defensive skills.

All local OPDL clubs expressed concern at the outset that Ottawa didn’t own a talent pool great enough to sus-tain four high-calibre teams on the boys’ and girls’ sides, and that’s a reality many are currently facing – each squad has a few strong players but not enough depth to compete optimally.

For the Hotspurs girls’ team, it was an even greater challenge; simply get-ting enough players interested in taking part in the OPDL proved to be a burden.

Nepean began with four players who’d played together last year and

slowly grew to its current 14-member roster, which includes several players in their first competitive soccer foray.

“It was tricky to get people out,” Knight recounts, noting that the new league suffered from misinformation and inaccurate perceptions, such as the travel required, which, in reality, is less than it was before for the Ontario Youth Soccer League.

Despite the early hurdles, the vet-eran of 10 years involvement in the long-running OYSL says a league that truly places development at the fore-front is “long overdue.”

“What I like is that both coaches are here for the same reason,” Knight un-derlines. “We’re all working together to create the best players for Canada.”

8

George Bennett has experi-enced many ups and downs as lead organizer of the Ottawa Internationals Icebreaker soccer tournament since 1995, and the 20th anniversary edition of the highly popular event was no dif-ferent.

The May 24-25 and May 31-June 1 weekends provided “the greatest weather we’ve ever had,” for the girls’ and boys’ tournament, Bennett notes.

“We just had so few issues,” he adds.

It may have been a bit easier on the army of volunteers that

make the Icebreaker come to life, but Bennett was nonethe-less disappointed to see tourna-ment entries drop by 67 com-pared to last year’s 433 total.

Bennett attributes some of the decline in numbers to the Ontario Soccer Association’s “mishandling” of the young age groups. He believes the policy that makes groups below age 12 play in festivals – where no scores, stats or standings are kept and no champion declared – drove some people away. The OSA also originally didn’t allow U12 and lower teams from Que-bec to Ontario for tournaments, causing them to enter other tour-

naments.“ M y

fear is once you lose a customer, you might not get it back,” B e n n e t t explains.

T h e r e is no question, however, that the m a s s i v e event will p e r s i s t . From 13 and 18 teams in the first two years of the girls-only tournament, the Icebreaker has grown in leaps and bounds over 20 years.

The timing of the competi-tion is naturally one big draw as teams seek to get their legs under them to kickoff their seasons.

The “Icebreaker” theme car-ries over to many other aspects of the event too. Cold-weather animals grace the medals each year – this year, it was the killer whale – making it a unique, memorable prize.

“It’s always nice to win a

medal, but it’s even nicer when it’s special,” Bennett underlines. “Players can say, ‘I won the year of the polar bear.’”

Five local teams earned di-vision championship titles at this year’s Icebreaker – the West Ottawa Warriors (girls’ U15 ice pile category), the Ottawa Roy-als (girls’ U16 snow bank Nun-avut), the Gloucester Hornets (boys’ U12 snow bank Yukon), and the Nepean City Storm (boys’ U12 snow bank Yukon and boys’ U18 ice pile).

Icebreaker tournament turns 20By Andrew DiRienzo

COMMUNITY CLUBS

photo: dan plouffe

Competing in his first marathon, Ottawa Lions athlete Tommy Des Brisay was the top local finisher in the 40th anniversary edition of the Ottawa Marathon, placing 23rd in a time of 2:39:21.1.

Dazzling debut

photo: steve kingsman

photo: steve

kingsman

The Ottawa Inter-nationals Soccer Club’s 20th annual Icebreaker tourna-ment took place May 24-25 (girls) and May 31-June 1 (boys). The highly popular event has routinely attracted around 400 teams in recent years.

Gloucester native leads Carleton Place to national Jr. A hockey final

He won’t dazzle you with highlight-reel plays, nor will his name often be found in the scoring column, but Carleton Place Canadians captain Elias Ghantous was nonetheless a key component to his club`s best season ever.

The Leitrim native was a cornerstone defender for the Canadians, who set a Central Canada Hockey League record with 110 regular season points, won the Bogart and Fred Page Cups as league and eastern

Canada champions, and went all the way to the Jr. ‘A’ national final before losing a heartbreak-ing 4-3 overtime contest to the Yorkton Terriers at the May 10-18 RBC Cup in Vernon, B.C.

“It has been amazing, a privilege. I feel honoured to have led this team, wearing the ‘C’, to a record-setting sea-son,” Ghantous says. “I actually didn’t know (the RBC Cup) even existed when I first joined the team. Every single year I’ve gotten closer and closer.”

By Jamie Shinkewski

GHANTOUS cont’s on p.9

9

Email Head Strength & Conditioning Coach Nicolas.Wescott@carleton.ca or

visit Athletics.Carleton.ca for more information.

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• Elite 3 Month Membership for $1500 (for 5 days a week, other options also available)

Four local whitewater paddlers earned national team positions for this season thanks to their performances at May 18-19 trials in B.C. Michael Tayler, Cameron Smedley, Alexandra McGee and Thea Froehlich will represent Canada at canoe slalom World Cup and World Championships events this summer, starting with a June 6-8 World Cup in London, UK.

Ottawa native Julianne Zussman will be headed to New Zealand with the Canadian women’s rugby team for a June tour in preparation for the Women’s World Cup in August. The Ashbury College grad was officially named to Canada’s 27-player roster in May, while Asya Bartley of the Barrhaven Scot-tish and Natasha Watcham-Roy of the University of Ottawa were slotted as non-traveling reserves.

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

SOLID NATIONALS RUNS FOR MAVS 17U GIRLS

1 OF 3 LOCAL RUGBY PLAYERS BASED WITH WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM GETS CALL FOR TOUR

SPEED SKATER LOCKS UP COMMONWEALTH GAMES CYCLING BERTH, SQUASH PLAYER JOINS GLASGOW TEAMSochi 2014 Olympic speed skater Vincent De Haitre will be wearing Cana-dian colours at a major multi-sport Games for the second time this year. The 19-year-old has been officially nominated to the Canadian track cycling team for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. A national champion in the 1 km distance both on ice and the cycling track, De Haitre is expected to help Canada contend for a medal in the team sprint, and he’ll also be eligible to com-pete in the 1 km time trial, sprint and keirin events. Recently-crowned national champion Samantha Cornett, a Deep River native who spent her teenage years

training in Ottawa to launch an international career, will be Canada’s lone female squash representative in Glasgow.RIVER RUNNERS PADDLERS MAINTAIN NATIONAL TEAM POSITIONS FOR 2014

The Maverick Gold Rush 17-and-under girls’ volleyball team reached the quarter-final round at the May 9-11 Canadian championships in Edmon-ton, posting an 5-2 record overall, including the playoff round loss to the champs from Winnipeg. The 17U Maverick Blackjacks won tier 2 silver.

The Orleans Bengals Football Club, along with City Councillor Stephen Blais, posted a video online in May to spread the club’s anti-bullying message. It’s the latest product of the six-year-old “Be a Bengal not a Bully” program, which seeks to teach players how to enhance pro-tective factors (such as strong, positive social networks), reduce risk factors (social isolation, friends who bully, financial barriers) and influence behaviours of those who bully, victims and bystanders. The video can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfuIzThtH2w

‘BE A BENGAL, NOT A BULLY’ PROGRAM RELEASES VIDEO

LOCAL WEIGHTLIFTER EARNS CANADIAN CHAMPION CROWNOttawa weightlifter Isabelle Després won a gold medal in the Cana-dian women’s 58 kg division at the May 17-18 Canadian championships in Saskatoon. The 33-year-old’s 180 kg combined total for the snatch and the clean-and-jerk approached her personal-best, and bettered her performance from the 2012 Pan American championships.

OTTAWA SOCCER REFEREE CHOSEN FOR U-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP IN CANADAVeteran international soccer official Carol-Anne Chénard of Ottawa will get to referee on home soil for the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup this summer, the Canadian Soccer Associ-ation announced in May. The former national team speed skater began officiating as a teenager in Gloucester and has become Canada’s most prominent international referee, previously call-ing the shots for the final of the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, as well as at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2012 London Women’s Olympic Football Tournament.

PAIR EARN CHARACTER AWARDS FROM HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS BODY

A pair of local basketball players were named to provincial women’s basketball teams in May. Michelle Istead of the Gloucester-Cumberland Wolverines will play for Ontario’s U15 team, while Veronika Lavergne of the Ottawa Nationals will dress for the U17 side. Gloucester-Cumberland’s Fabienne Blizzard will be an assistant coach for the U17 squad. Both Ontario teams will look to de-fend their gold medals at the July 25-30 Canada Basketball National Championships in Edmonton.

2 OTTAWA BASKETBALL PLAYERS CRACK WOMEN’S PROVINCIAL TEAM LINEUPS

The 20-year-old defens-ive defenceman only scored 47 points in 190 games dur-ing his four-year career with the Canadians, but earned his stripes playing a hard-nosed, physical game.

“Eli has really grown as a person,” highlights Car-leton Place coach and gen-eral manager Jason Clarke, calling Ghantous their best defenceman in the playoffs. “He never plays outside of his comfort zone. He always plays the way that makes

him a good hockey player. He has a great character, a great work ethic and he’s just a leader.”

Ghantous, a member of the Canadians for four of the franchise’s five years of existence at the Jr. ‘A’ level, takes special care to ensure new players to the club know and see what the team’s culture is all about, Clarke adds.

When goaltender Guil-laume Therien was traded from Hawkesbury to Car-leton Place in October, Ghantous helped him along.

“He is bilingual, so that helped me with my trans-ition because in Hawksbury I mostly spoke French with the guys,” Therien recounts. “In the room, on the ice, even when we go watch a movie, he is such a great leader and that’s the kind of example we need.”

With his CCHL career now in the books, Ghantous will move on to Robert Mor-ris University and an NCAA hockey scholarship. He’ll take with him many fond memories from his time in Carleton Place, in particular

feeling the energy of a small town’s support for their local junior hockey club.

Ghantous estimates 400 fans made the journey to St-Jerome, Que. to support the Canadians at the Fred Page Cup.

“They follow us wherever we go,” smiles the former Gloucester Rangers minor hockey player. “Every single rink we went to in the playoffs was electric because of our fans. Even though we were the away team, it felt like we were at home.”

GHANTOUS: Robert Morris U-bound player a model leader, says Carleton Place coach

photo: jamie shinkewski

continued from p.8

The Louis-Riel Dome hosted mentors from one of the world’s most renowned soccer clubs from May 19-23. Around 150 young players got a taste of the Spanish style at their nightly ses-sions with FC Barcelona Escola coaches.

Barça brewin’

photo: dan plouffe

Two national capital student-athletes were chosen as OFSAA Character Athlete Award winners in May. Elsa Lalonde, who was recognized for her involvement with a support group for youth and mental health, is a para-athlete and former Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team member who competes for Gisèle-Lalonde’s OFSAA-champion able-bodied volleyball team. Ajeuro Abala, a cross-country and track & field runner/soccer player for all four of his years at Immaculata, was honoured for helping to organize his school’s Terry Fox run,

blood donor clinics & craft fairs, and for delivering Christmas baskets and refereeing elementary school games.

10

The Ottawa Sportspage is a volunteer-driven newspaper devoted to shining a spotlight on local amateur sport.

City Councillors Tim Tierney, Rainer Bloess, Bob Monette, Maria McRae, Peter Hume, Jan Harder, Mathieu Fleury, David Chernushenko, Katherine Hobbs, Mark Taylor & Scott Moffatt, Mayor Jim Watson, Members of Provincial Parliament Grant Crack,Phil McNeely, Yasir Naqvi, John Fraser, Bob Chiarelli & Madeleine Meilleur, and Photographer Dean Joncas.

Our publication would not exist without the support of our advertising partners. We thank these community clubs, sport

organizations and businesses for backing Ottawa’s vibrant sports community, and we encourage you to support these groups.

To learn more about becoming an advertising partner of the Ottawa Sportspage, contacteditor@sportsottawa.com

EDITORIAL

Mailing address:902 Pinecrest Rd.

Ottawa, Ont. K2B 6B3

The Ottawa Sportspage is printed on the first Tues-day of the month by Ot-tawa Sports Media, the locally-owned and op-erated publisher of the Ottawa Sportspage newspaper & SportsOttawa.com. Local sports news from high schools, universities, com-munity clubs and elite ama-teur sport is the name of our game. We’re at The Heart-beat of the Ottawa Sports Community.

Contact:Editor: Dan Plouffe

613-261-5838Editor@SportsOttawa.com

Team of the Month: Nepean Knights Novice Lacrosse TeamTeam Members: Players Thomas Kiazyk, Michael Green, Vincent Roy, Liam MacLeod, Josh Sweet, Isaac Hindle, Colin McKinnon, Cole Bowditch, Liam Aston, Dane Usher, Jason Clarke, Owen Tasse, Willem Firth, John Hertner, Gabe Kings-bury & Carson McEwan. Coaches Matt Firth, Dean Usher & Jason Tasse, trainer Mark Bowditch & manager Lisa MacLeod.

About: The Nepean Knights Novice Lacrosse Team won the gold medal at the 29th annual Peterborough Laker Classic on May 26. The Knights earned a perfect 5-0 record at the event, beating the tournament hosts 7-4 in the final. Willem Firth led the Novice division in scoring with 19 points in five games, followed by Liam Aston (12 pts) and Owen Tasse (10), while goalie Thomas Kiazyk posted a 2.80 goals against average in his five wins. Also boosted by Peewee and Midget silver medal wins, Nepean was the top performing association at the event. Earlier in May, the Knights U17 field lacrosse team won the Ontario ‘B’ championship.

Athlete of the Month: Sadian Hinds-Blackstock

Sport: Track-and-Field

School/Grade: Grade 9 Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School

About: Sadian Hinds-Blackstock splashed onto the local high school track-and-field scene in a big way in May. The Grade 9 Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School student enters her first OFSAA championships fresh off a triple-gold medal performance at the east regional meet, winning the midget girls’ 200 metres, 300 m hurdles and 4x100 m relay. Hinds-Blackstock set a new national capital record with her time of 46.79 seconds in the 300 m hurdles. She also established a new east regional 200 m record of 25.74 – .31 seconds faster than 2013 Canada Summer Games 200 m gold medalist Amelia Brohman’s previous benchmark.

To nominate Stars of the Month, go to SportsOttawa.com and follow the link on the right-hand bar under the Stars of the Month feature. Courtesy of the Ottawa Sportspage and the YMCA-YWCA of the National Capital Region, the selected Ath-lete of the Month will receive a free one-week Family Pass to the Y, while each mem-ber of the Team of the Month will receive free one-visit passes.

YMCA-YMCA OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

STARS OF THE MONTH

photo: john clark

photo: steve kingsman

Forced to miss a fourth con-secutive appearance at the Eastern Canadian Gymnastics Champion-ships due to a bout of appendicitis last season, trampolinist Francis

Tyo rebounded in a big way at this year’s event, earning two gold and two bronze medals at the May 10-13 event in Oshawa.

Tyo, an Ottawa resident who trains out of Gatineau’s UniGym club, placed first in the men’s Pro-

vincial Level 3 individual com-petition, took third in the double mini trampoline and synchronized events, and earned team gold for Quebec.

It was an impressive perform-ance, but the 12-year-old is already

focused on his next step, which will be to compete at the na-tional level alongside his older brothers, Vincent and Ben-jamin, who were both amongst the best in their categories at the May 26-31 Canadian Gymnastics Champi-onships.

“It’s going to be a good experience, because at the level I’m at right now, I’m not usually compet-ing with them,” notes Tyo, a Grade 8 St. Bernard Element-ary School student. “I probably will up-grade (my training) because my brother already upgraded it, because he’s at a higher national level.”

Tyo’s father, Richard, explains that Francis’ current 10 hours of training at the gym and an-other five on his own will only increase as he moves up.

“During the sum-mer, Francis will be able to increase his degree of difficulty, like more flips and more twists, in or-der to be in the na-tional level streams where it’s a little bit more spectacular, and also more dan-gerous and difficult,” adds Richard, who bounced between the role of event vo-lunteer and fan at the nationals.

LOTS OF LOCAL MEDALS

Tyo was far from alone as a local medalist from the Eastern Canadians.

Three athletes from Tumblers Gym-nastics Centre had a big meet, with Alex-andra Cameron lead-ing a Team Ontario 1-through-4 sweep

11

Ottawa Royals & Knights Baseball Club Player of the Month

Colby Schroeder of the Ottawa Royals Peewee AAA team earns the nod as his organization’s top player of the month.

Colby is enjoying an exceptional start to the season, batting an im-pressive .714.

He led his team in stolen bases

with 4, and delivered 8 strikeouts from the mound in the Royals’ back-to-back weekend wins in late May.

Royals Report & Knights News

www.ottawaroyalsbaseballclub.com

The Ottawa Royals & Knights Baseball Club provides the region’s premiere competitive development program for players aged 10-18.

COLBY SCHROEDER

Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club

OPEN HOUSE!

June 21st 10 am - 2 pm

Bridlewood Elementary School

W W W

6 1 3

8 6 7

5 7 7 4

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-

K R S G

O R G

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.

Join us for performances, information & registration for 2014-15 at our Open House on June 21st!

Auditions for the club’s advanced training stream will be held June 14th. Registration for our Recre- ational Rhythmic Gymnastics Summer Camp is also open! Find out more at:

63 Bluegrass Drive in Kanata

krsg.org

Youngest Tyo trampolinist follows brothersBy Andrew Price

COMMUNITY CLUBS

Honorable mention goes out to Ryan Mount of the Ottawa Knights 18U AAA team. Ryan pitched a com-plete-game, 1-hit shutout in his team’s victory over the Montreal Titans.

Dominic Murray of the 18U Knights AA team also pitched a complete-game (7 innings) shutout against Montreal in league play.

Dominic gave up just 2 hits and al-lowed only 1 walk while striking out 8 batters in the game.

Jordan Kazan of the Royals’ Ban-tam ‘Blue’ team also produced a standout performance in May. Jordan pitched 6 innings, allowing only 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk against the Lac-St-Louis Tigers.

Haley Miller was one of the star performers at the Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club’s Spring Gymnaestrada. The 11-year-old pro-vincial-level athlete has a fourth-place rope finish under her belt this season from a qualifying event for the provincial champi-onships, set for June 7-8 in Toronto.

Earl of March Sec-ondary School was bubbling with energy for the May 23 event as hundreds of KRSG members – from its youngest beginners up to provincial stars – showcased their tal-ents. For 27 advanced stream gymnasts, the performance was a tune-up opportunity for the last-June Cana-dian Gymnaestrada in Calgary.

Through the Calgary event, they’ll have a chance to earn a trip to Finland and the 2015 World Gymnaes-trada, a quadrennial exhibition that brings together 20,000+ gym-nasts of varying ages from around the world.

Gaga for Gymnae- strada

photo: dan plouffe

of the women’s artistic Tyro 4 all-around competition, and Avery Rosales and Juliette Chap-man finishing 1-2 in the Novice Na-tional category. All were team champi-ons with Ontario as well.

N e p e a n -Corona’s Jennifer Vo, Ottawa Gym-nastics Centre’s Sarah Stacey and Tumblers’ Beth Webster were all sil-ver medalists in their

respective women’s artistic all-around competitions, while National Capital’s Nathaniel Teng (sil-ver) and Tumblers’ Nicholas Dugan (bronze) were all-around medalists in men’s artistic classes.

Spring Action’s Ryan Massey-Smith was a synchro tram-poline Eastern Ca-nadian champion in men’s P1, Age 13+ alongside Alexander Ayotte.

Francis Tyo.

file photo

“It’s pretty cool,” smiles the can-didate for Canada’s Youth Olympic Games team later this summer. “Maybe (young aspiring gymnasts) can push themselves to be even bet-ter than me.”

In the end, Zakutney did keep one of his streaks alive by earning a national title for a fifth consecutive year, capturing gold in the event fi-nals for parallel bars and vault.

Four more Ottawa individuals were gold medal winners, all mem-bers of one of the four nationals host clubs – Ottawa Gymnastics Centre, Tumblers Gymnastics Centre, Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club and Gatineau’s UniGym.

OGC’s Taylor Jackle Spriggs, a second-year Carleton commerce student, won men’s artistic national open event finals gold on pommel horse and vault, as well

as bronze on floor and parallel bars – an event won by OGC teammate Bruno Webster – plus a repeat all-around silver.

Ottawa residents Taysia Thompson and Vincent Tyo, who train at UniGym for tram-poline, were champions in the women’s national open and men’s espoir competitions.

UniGym’s Benjamin Tyo, OGC’s Adrianka Forrest and Sofia Baggio were medalists, while Tumblers Julie-Anne Fiset and Eric Gauthier, and OGC’s Jaroslav Hojka also competed.

See SportsOttawa.com for more detailed coverage.

Ben Tardioli skipped taking a gentle first-time introduction and wasted no time making a name for himself on the inter-national canoe-kayak scene by placing fourth in the C-1 men’s 200 metres in his World Cup de-but at Racice, Czech Republic May 16-18.

“I was very, very happy,” smiles Tardioli, who’d been surprised enough to win the Ca-nadian team trials after placing fourth last year.

“To come fourth at a World Cup? No way,” Tardioli says, still in disbelief. “But I just did my race, basically. I had a great start and I kept it going the whole way, and that was it. You can’t really focus on other people when you race. You’ve got to do your own thing, and it paid off.”

The 24-year-old recent Car-leton University grad came back down to earth a little for the second World Cup of the tour May 23-25 in Szeged, Hungary, placing 13th overall out of 35.

Tardioli says he was feeling tired by the end of the three-week trip – his longest stay to date overseas – especially since

the team continued to train hard throughout instead of peaking, since the next set of team trials at the end of June in Montreal and the Aug. 6-10 World Cham-pionships in Moscow carry greater importance.

Tardioli was unexpectedly joined by a fellow Rideau Ca-noe Club athlete for the trip. Megan Sibthorpe, Canada’s second-ranked right side canoe paddler, got the call eight days before the Racice event that the top Canadian had decided not to go and the door was open for her to make her World Cup debut.

“I was really surprised,” recounts the 19-year-old South Carleton High School grad. “I

was hoping to make it through trials in the future, but this year it was definitely not planned.”

Sibthorpe definitely felt her heart pounding on the start line for her first race, she describes, but generally didn’t feel nerves as much as expected.

“The atmosphere was really different. I’m used to having all my club with me whenever I’m racing. Being around profes-sional athletes is very different. They’re very relaxed and not super stressed out before their races. I think it made me more calm as well being around that and I didn’t get stressed out,” explains Sibthorpe, who placed eighth of nine athletes in the C-1

200 m and fifth of six entries in the C-2 500 m alongside Taylor Potts.

Having two paddlers from the same club make their World Cup debuts together was “pretty cool. It was definitely nice to have someone from home there,” adds Sibthorpe, who made a quick day trip to Prague with Tardioli during their time in Czech Republic.

JR./U23 WORLDS PROMISE

Four local athletes are in the final running for places on the Canadian team for the July 17-20 Junior and Under-23 World Championships in Szeged after podium performances at the May 31-June 1 team trials in Dartmouth, N.S.

Also a fourth-place fin-isher in K-1, Victor Turcanu of the Ottawa River Canoe Club earned bronze with teammate Harrison Chambers in the K-2 junior men’s 200 m.

Rideau athletes Drew Hodges (silver, C-1 U23 men’s 1,000 m), August Sibthorpe (silver, K-1 junior women’s 500 m) and Kate Braddon (bronze, K-2 junior women’s 500 m with Rowan Hardy-Kavanagh) were also selected.

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Paddler pounces on World Cup debut, finishes 4thBy Dan Plouffe

ELITE

Ben Tardioli.

photo: balint vekassy

GYMNASTICS cont’d from p.1

photos: dan plouffe

Vincent Tyo.

Julie- Anne Fiset.