This coverage was first sent as an email newsletter to our subscribers. Sign up to receive it, for free, on our Ottawa at the Canada Games page. Newsletter by Tyler Reis-Sanford, Dan Plouffe, Keiran Gorsky, Adam Beauchemin, Martin Cleary & Farrah Philpot After a mammoth first week where 28 local athletes brought home a total of 53 medals, 20 more are raring to compete in week 2 of St. John’s 2025, and we’re very eager to see what kind of feats this group will have in store for us to follow in our daily Ottawa at the Canada Games coverage. A crew of 11 local paddlers dominated the canoe-kayak competition in week 1, and the lion’s share of local competitors in week 2 will take part in track and field events on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Three of them are Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club throwers, who are just two weeks removed from competing in their hometown Canadian Track and Field Championships at Terry Fox Athletic Facility. Jessica Gyamfi, Connor Fraser and Liam Davis will be suiting up for Team Ontario. It will be Gyamfi’s second multi-sport event of the season, having represented the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees at the late-July FISU World University Games in Germany. The uOttawa medicine and health student got stuck with several Canadian athletes in Germany for an extra two days because of a missed flight and was still readjusting to the time change during nationals. Gyamfi said travel is something they try their best to manage, even when it takes a toll. “For us in Ottawa, because everything always seems to be in southwestern Ontario, it’s a lot of travelling, so we’re used to it,” Gyamfi said of out-of-town high-level meets. “It’s a lot of back-to-back buses for 6-8 hours at a time. I love it, but all the travelling does some things to the body after a time.” Competing in the senior division, Gyamfi placed fourth in discus and fifth in shot put at the nationals. Although she felt as though she could have done better, Gyamfi said she’s happy with the results and her growth considering that she’s only been throwing competitively for a little over two years. Gyamfi’s preferred event is the discus, but since she’s only scheduled to compete in shot put at the Canada Summer Games, she said that she would take the time between to focus on her shot put form. “I’m hoping I can finish the summer with a big throw,” signalled Gyamfi in conversation with the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Tyler Reis-Sanford. “And also enjoy Newfoundland, because I’ve never been there before.”
Connor Fraser fresh off senior national discus silver medal
Connor Fraser. Photo: Farrah Philpot Also making his first trip out to Newfoundland is fellow Ottawa Lion Connor Fraser, who enjoyed another successful run at the Canada Summer Games, placing fifth in shot put, and taking home his second consecutive silver medal in discus. “It’s great to be on the home track in front of friends and family,” reflected Fraser. “And I got to stay at home and sleep in my own bed after.” Similar to Gyamfi, Fraser is a comparably undersized thrower, and prefers discus to other events because it allows for athletes to substitute raw strength and power with speed and technique. Fraser said the ideal body weight for a senior men’s thrower is somewhere between 240 and 270 pounds, and that some guys can top out over 300 pounds. At 200 pounds, with the ability to squat more than twice his body weight for reps, Fraser isn’t too phased by his competition though. “It’s such an individual sport though, you’re so focused on yourself, you don’t really think about the other competitors too much,” explained Fraser. “If you are, you’re probably not in the right headspace to compete.” Ironically, Fraser said that sometimes the best thing for his competitive mindset is to throw poorly, something he finds he does at the start of practically every season. Fraser has also been dealing with a back injury, a minor issue he said started bothering him when he previously played hockey up to the U16 ‘AAA’ level. That injury flares up occasionally and although it won’t stop him from competing, Fraser said that it’s kept him away from weight training and focused on spending time throwing. “I didn’t quite hit what I think I could’ve hit at nationals,” highlighted Fraser. “The plan is to throw a little bit farther in Newfoundland.” Tim Nedow. File photo Fraser got into throwing during high school at Immaculata, and in 2022 was approached by Tim Nedow, a coach and youth program director with the Ottawa Lions. He’s now in his fourth season being coached by Nedow, who competed at the Tokyo and Rio Olympics, was the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games silver medallist and the Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist. Nedow now leads a solid group of rising local throwers, which also includes Davis, who placed fourth in shot put at the nationals, outdistancing Fraser by just 19 centimetres. Davis is just a year and a half into his throwing journey and now competes for the University of Guelph Gryphons as well. The Opeongo High School grad also competed in the hammer throw at nationals, which was won by reigning Olympic champion Ethan Katzberg by a margin of nearly 10 metres. Davis will also be throwing for Ontario at the Canada Summer Games, while four more local track and field athletes will also make the trip to Newfoundland. There will be a pair of CANI Athletics jumpers joining the throwing trio in field events at the Canada Games. Ottawa’s Thomas Sénéchal-Becker won his first senior men’s high school title at the Canadian Track and Field Championships on Aug. 3 at Terry Fox Athletic Facility. Photo: Farrah Philpot Returning for his second Canada Games, Thomas Sénéchal-Becker will be the undeniable favourite in the men’s high jump. He equalled the top height achieved at the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games, but lost out on tiebreaker to take silver. He’s since gone on to win the 2023 U Sports title with the Gee-Gees and then won his first senior national men’s title in Ottawa two weeks ago. Joshua Foster. Photo: CGC Joshua Foster will also enter the Canada Games with high hopes, having earned fifth-place and silver medal performances in the senior men’s long jump at the 2025 and 2024 nationals respectively. There will also be two local athletes on the track in St. John’s. After withdrawing from his final high school season at West Carleton due to injury, sprinter Will Batley of CANI Athletics showed he’s back in fine form at the nationals with a U20 men’s 200 metres silver medal and a 100 m bronze. “It just feels good to know that I’m still up there with everyone, even after coming back from injury. Just to know I’m still there with the best in Canada for my age group feels good,” Batley told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Adam Beauchemin at the nationals. The Lions’ Zach Jeggo sped to a gold medal in the men’s U20 400 m hurdles at the nationals, as well as a U20 400 m bronze. The recent Louis-Riel high school grad will be moving to Burnaby, B.C. later this summer to attend and race for Simon Fraser University. Zach Jeggo. File photo “It was great to run on home turf one last time,” Jeggo told Beauchemin. “I have Canada Games later on too and I’m jumping on a plane to B.C. after that.”Ottawa athletes will compete in 6 more week 2 sports
The second week of action at the Canada Summer Games actually got underway Monday night when the Newfoundland women’s baseball team took centre-stage for the only competition of the day. British Columbia rocked the hosts 13-0, but there was bigger meaning behind the match as women’s baseball made its first-ever appearance at the Canada Games, a decade after the sport made its debut at the Pan American Games in Toronto in 2015. Sofia Milks. Photo: Instagram A pair of 16-year-old Ottawa players will be part of the historic tournament on the St. John’s diamonds Tuesday afternoon when Ontario takes on Quebec. Sophia Audet plays club baseball for the East Nepean Eagles, while Sofia Milks represents the Ottawa West Twins, with whom she won a Little League Ontario intermediate title in 2022. Three Ottawa athletes will be competing in the pool in week 2, with both artistic swimming and diving getting underway Tuesday. Ella Lindsay. Photo: Isabella Disley Ella Lindsay of the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club comes in hot off winning a medal of each colour at the July 17-20 Speedo Junior Elite National Diving Championships in Edmonton. The 16-year-old has won multiple medals while representing Canada at the Dresden International Youth Diving Meet, and she also debuted for Canada at the senior international level at June’s Canada Cup of Diving in Gatineau. Madison Murphy of the GO Capital Artistic Swimming Club enters the Canada Games fresh off a third-place national performance for her acrobatic routine at the 2025 Canadian Championships. The 17-year-old also owns a pair of international medals from the Pan Am Championships – a junior tech duet silver in 2024 and a youth duet gold in 2023. Rafael Serey-Cormier impressed with four medals at May’s Dive Ontario Spring Provincials in his hometown. The 17-year-old recent Louis-Riel high school grad spent most of his career with NODC before recently switching to Gatineau, which offered training times that better suited his schedule. Fiona Cortes-Browne. Photo: X The Ontario women’s soccer team features a pair of local players with solid record of success on the pitch. Danica Menard and Fiona Cortes-Browne are both Ottawa South United Force products who have also made the move to Toronto to be part of the Canadian women’s team National Development Centre. Cortes-Browne’s older sister Sofia was the goalkeeper for Canada Games-champion Team Ontario at the Niagara 2022 tournament, while Menard was a champion with an OSU squad that represented Canada at the 2024 Gatorade Global 5v5 Finals in London, U.K. Both have also won OPDL titles with OSU. Two years after his experience with Team Canada at the U18 Men’s Softball World Cup in Mexico came to an abrupt end with a dislocated shoulder, Conner Hopper of West Carleton Electric is eager to show he’s back in top form. Fresh off a national silver medal as a guest player with the Plattsville Lightning at Softball Canada’s men’s U20 championship in Saskatoon, Hopper told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Tyler Reis-Sanford that second place won’t do at the Canada Games. Jasmine Chrétien. Photo: Instagram Three local volleyball players will play for Ontario starting Tuesday. It’ll be the last stop for women’s players Jasmine Chrétien and Eva Génier of the Maverick Volleyball Club before they head off to join university teams. Chrétien will become a Dino at the University of Calgary, while Génier will join the Université de Montréal Carabins. Deng Yout of the Ontario men’s team is a year younger than many players in the 18U age group. Originally from Calgary, Yout was pulled into club volleyball by the Ottawa Fusion after seeing him play for his high school. And two National Capital Wrestling Club grapplers will hit the mats Wednesday. Kingston’s Makinleigh Courtney puts in many miles as she tries to get to two practices a week with the NCWC in Mechanicsville. Dexter Bates recently qualified to represent Canada internationally at the youth level. The Holy Trinity Catholic High School student enjoyed a perfect undefeated Grade 11 season en route to the OFSAA provincial high school gold medal. Like last week, we’ll share our coverage late each night to recap that day’s action and set the stage for the next one.Mike Woods announces pro cycling retirement
Mike Woods won the 13th stage of the Vuelta a España in 2024. Photo: Israel-Premier Tech While our main focus this week is on the Canada Games, we’ve still got our eye on news from many other events and levels, so we also wanted to finish by tipping our hats to one of Ottawa’s all-time greats, three-time Olympic cyclist Mike Woods, who announced he will be retiring from pro cycling at the end of this season on Monday.Ottawa at the Canada Games Daily Newsletter
A huge team of 48 Ottawa athletes is competing at the St. John’s 2025 Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland. The Ottawa Sports Pages will be sending out a free daily email newsletter with recaps, previews and profiles throughout the Aug. 9-24 national youth multi-sport event. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. By clicking on the submit button, you consent to receive the above newsletter from the Ottawa Sports Pages. You may unsubscribe by clicking on the link at the bottom of our emails. Ottawa Sports Pages | 21 Kolo Dr., Ashton, Ont., K0A 1B0 | 613-261-5838 ~ SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM ~ We need your help to keep producing the local sports news you can’t find anywhere else!Related
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