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(Posted
8:30 a.m., July 7)
Local
pair named to World Junior track and field team
By
Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
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|  Fallingbrook
resident Segun Makinde has been named to Canada's World Junior Track and Field
team after winning three gold medals at the national junior championships in Moncton
last weekend including the men's 110-metre hurdles and the 200 metre sprint. Fred
Sherwin/Photo
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Two local
athletes have been named to Canada's World Junior track and field team after posting
impressive results at the national junior trials in Moncton on the weekend.. Segun
Makinde from Fallingbrook will be competing in three events at the World Junior
Championships later on this month after winning both the 110-metre hurdles and
the 200 metre sprint. The
Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club member ran a 14.18 in the hurdles on Saturday
in a race that was without the current Canadian junior record holder and reigning
Ontario high school champion Greg MacNeill.
With
his main competition absent, Makinde crossed the finish line almost a tenth of
a second ahead of Tremaine Grant. "The
hurdles went pretty much the way I was hoping," says Makinde. "I wanted
to run a sub-14 and I ran 13.92 in the preliminary so that was pretty good." On
Sunday, Makinde ran a 21.57 in the 200 metres, crossing the finish line nearly
three-tenths of second ahead of Marlon Laidlaw-Allen for his second gold medal
in as many days. Although he won the race, his time was well off his personal
best of 20.99 which he hopes to improve upon at the World Junior Championships,
which will also be held in Moncton. "It
went well that I won, but I was definitely hoping for a better time. My legs were
feeling kind of weird. It's better to run slow at nationals then at worlds,"
says Makinde who will be representing Canada on the international stage for the
fourth time. He
competed in the World Youth Championships in 2007 as a 16-year-old. In 2008, he
won a bronze medal in the 4x100 relay at the Commonweath Youth Games in Pune,
Indiaand made it to the semi-final of the men's 200 metres.. And last year he
qualified for the final in the men's 200 metres at the Pan Am Junior Track and
Field Championships in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Makinde
will be joined in Moncton by fellow Fallingbrook resident Devin Biocchi who qualified
for the 4x400 relay team by way of his fifth place finish in the men's 400 metres. Three
other east end athletes also did well in Moncton including Mohammed Souleiman
who placed second in the men's 800 metres competing as a 17-year-old and was a
member of the gold medal winning 4x400 relay team along with Biocchi and Colonel
By grad Cameron Smithers. The fourth member of the team was Matt Basler. Biocchi
won a second gold medal on the 4x100 relay team with Makinde. (This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local
business partners.) Return
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