Ottawa track and field athletes make national team

OTTAWA - Incoming track and field freshmen Ashlea Maddex (St Pascal Baylon, Ont.) and Kevin Biocchi (Gloucester, Ont.) along with current Gee-Gee track star Oluwasegun Makinde (Ottawa) will be among the 59 athletes from across Canada to represent the nation in Moncton, N.B., from July 19 to July 25 at the 2010 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Junior Championships.

The announcement came Monday morning following the conclusion of the Canadian World Junior Trials that took place in Moncton from July 2 to July 4.

All three athletes put on outstanding performances over the course of the weekend to qualify for the championship team.

Maddex won gold in the women's 100M hurdles (14.21) and took home a silver medal in the 400M hurdles (1:00.11). Makinde won gold in both the men's 110M hurdles (14.18) and 200M dash (21.57), while Bocchi helped the Lions Club 4x400m relay team to a first place finish. They will be competing in each of these events at the championship.

Maddex, who competed at the 2009 IAAF World Youth Championships in Bressanone, Italy, last summer, says she is looking forward to representing Canada and is aiming to record personal bests. "I don't want to set my expectations too high, I just want to go out there and do my best."

She feels that her experience at last year's World Youth Championships will help her coming into the World Juniors.

Bocchi said he was overjoyed when he found out he made the team. "All the hard work I've put in for the past two to three years has finally given me what I always wanted."

This will be his first international competition and he admits that he is not at all nervous, but instead super excited.

"I'm just looking to do my best and compete at the top of my level. I want to learn and gain experience for later national teams that I hope to be on in later years."

Results of the trials can be found at http://athleticsvideos.com/Live_Results/2010/World_Junior_Trials/. 

Follow the events from July 19 to 25 at http://www.iaaf.org/wjc10/results/eventcode=4146/index.html.

Source:

Ottawa Sports Info