The pedigree of recent Gee-Gees hurdlers was on full display this week at the Jeux de la Francophonie in Abidjan, Ivory Coast with four competitors appearing at the international event which attracts over 4000 athletes from 77 countries.
Hurdles has been the most successful area of the Gee-Gees track and field team in recent years, featuring three gold medals, one silver, and two bronzes at the University National Championships since 2009. uOttawa student-athletes have also captured 11 hurdles medals at the OUA championships in the past 10 years.
Sekou Kaba was the flag-bearer for Canada for the Opening Ceremonies of the Jeux de la Francophonie (JDLF). An Olympian in 2016, Kaba won gold at the JDLF in 2013 and recently captured silver at the Canadian National Championships in Ottawa. He still holds the U SPORTS record which he set in 2014 to capture his second national gold for uOttawa. This week, Kaba was usurped on the top of the JDLF podium by Loic Herkenrath of France but did earn the silver medal with a time of 13.81.
On the women's side, 2016 uOttawa Athlete of the Year and U SPORTS gold medallist Devyani Biswal joined 2011 Gee-Gees national bronze medallist Ashlea Maddex and 2017 bronze medallist Tania Bambi on the track of Stade Félix HouphouĂ171t-Boigny. Biswal and Maddex qualified through the same heat, while Bambi suffered an injury after contacting the first hurdle of her heat.
In the final, Maddex climbed to the podium with a time of 13.44 to take the bronze medal while Biswal claimed fifth place at 13.62.
Of note, Gee-Gees sprinter Charifa Labarang also competed in Abidjan, winning a silver medal with the Cameroon 4x100m relay team. The Business Management student also reached both the 100m and 200m finals.
The Francophone Games were first launched in 1989 in Casablanca and Rabat, Morocco, and are a combination of sporting and cultural events for nations where French is the main language or where significant parts of the population use French as the first language. Ottawa hosted the Games in 2001.