Gee-Gees Track and Field Team sees gold at major summer events
The Gee-Gees track and field team members and alumni had plenty of high quality outdoor competition this summer, including the annual provincial and national track championships, as well as bi-annual national and international multi-sport games.
Below is a review of the highlights from the 2025 Canada Summer Games and the Canadian Track and Field Championships. A review of the 2025 FISU Summer World Games is available here.
Canada Summer Games - St. John's, Newfoundland:
Two Gee-Gees record-holders who have brought home U SPORTS medals in their careers stepped onto the podium at the Canada Games. Thomas Sénéchal-Becker captured gold in the high jump and Jessica Gyamfi earned bronze in the shot put.
For Sénéchal-Becker, the result topped off a great return to competition this summer following injuries which have limited his performances since 2023 when he won the U SPORTS gold medal and silver at the 2023 Canada Games. In Newfoundland, facing cold conditions, he won gold with a first clearance at 2.12 metres. See below for a recap of his 2025 Athletics Canada Senior National Championship win.
Jessica Gyamfi, 2025 U SPORTS bronze medallist in shot put, earned her first Canada Games medal by executing a well over the final three rounds. It was her final throw of 13.22 metres which scored the podium finish.
Canadian Track and Field Championships - Ottawa:
This event served as the 2025 World Championship Trials and included over 30 Gee-Gees competitors, including current student-athletes, incoming first-year team members, and program alumni, not to mention the officials, coaches, and volunteers contributing to a successful hosting job at Ottawa's Terry Fox Athletics facility.
Before the Canada Games, Thomas Sénéchal-Becker won gold in high jump with a 2.11 metre final jump, earning his first senior men's national championship. He separated himself from the six competitors who jumped 2.08m to win, representing C.A.N.I. athletics club of Ottawa.
Maeliss Trapeau (Science, '21) won the national gold medal in the women's 800 metres, winning her first national title after four years of living and training in France. Trapeau topped Canadian Olympian Jazz Shukla in the final with a time of 2:01.79, while fellow Gee-Gees alumna Sydney Smith (Science '20, Arts '22) finished fifth with a season-best time of 2:04.08.
The duo of Trapeau and Smith also won 2025 national gold together as part of the Ottawa Lions' senior women's 4x400m relay team, which recorded the second-best time in Canadian club history.
Current Gee-Gees to strike gold did so in the senior women's 4x100 metre relay. Fourth-year psychology student Courtney Cenac and second-year accounting student Amy Zhang were part of the Ottawa Lions club championship in that event.
At the U20 level, Safwan El Mansari followed a great start for a personal best time and a silver medal in the men's 800 metres. The Juris Doctor student from Ottawa will enter his second year with the Gee-Gees in 2025-26 and was a member of the silver medal-winning 4x400m relay team for the Garnet and Grey at the 2025 OUA Championships, as well as the team's top finisher in the 600m, placing seventh.
El Mansari also added a bronze medal in the senior men's 4x400m relay on an Ottawa Lions team which featured all Gee-Gees with Leewinchel Jean, Will Harris and David Moulongou, who recently returned from competition at the FISU Games. Moulongou added a fifth place finish in the senior men's 400-metre hurdles at nationals.
Gee-Gees alumna Brianna Asiamah (Social Sciences '23) placed fourth in the senior women's shot put, followed by FISU team member Jessica Gyamfi, who threw 12.68m in shot put and was fourth in discus, throwing 40.58 metres.