Ottawa has a long and proud sport tradition, and in this ongoing series, we present highlight moments and figures from our local sport history. The Ottawa Sport History Highlight series is produced collaboratively by the Ottawa Sports Pages and the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame, which has welcomed almost 300 inductees dating back to its establishment in 1968.

With Ottawa soon set to host the 2025 Canadian Track and Field Championships from July 31-Aug. 3 at Terry Fox Athletic Facility, we look back at the 1986 Canadians hosted at the same site.

Ottawa’s 1986 track and field nationals featured Canadian stars Mark McKoy, Milt Ottey, Lynn Williams, a young Glenroy Gilbert, and… Ben Johnson

In 1986, a star-studded lineup of world record-holders and future Olympic champions crashed down upon Ottawa’s Terry Fox Athletic Facility for the Canadian Track and Field Championships from June 20-22.

Numerous notable names from the international (and local) athletics scene made their mark at the meet in town 39 years ago.

The best-known athlete of the bunch was unquestionably – and ultimately, unfortunately – Ben Johnson.

These days, Johnson is most often recognized for the doping scandals that marred his career in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

However, in 1986, the picture looked very different as Johnson was beginning his ascent to the title of fastest man in the world*.

Ahead of the Championships, Martin Cleary of the Ottawa Citizen wrote: “Toronto’s Ben Johnson is in his prime. His list of achievements and honours is growing as fast as he runs.”

Johnson was coming off a 1985 World Cup win in the 100 metres (in 10.00 seconds) and Track and Field News had him ranked as the #2 100 m runner in the world, behind his frequent rival and nine-time American Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis.

As Cleary noted, the national title in the 100 m dash was Johnson’s to lose, and he “clearly won” the final in 10.07, clearing the rest of the field by over 0.20 seconds.

Mike Dwyer, Desai Williams and hurdler Mark McKoy were the next three sprinters to cross the line in the 100 m, all finishing within a hair of one another. With Canada able to enter two (and in some cases three) athletes per event in the 1986 Commonwealth Games, the photo finish for second place was of great importance.

All three racers were all given the time of 10.39, but Dwyer was awarded second place, with Williams and McKoy tied for third.

Johnson also raced in the 200 m, where he finished second behind Atlee Mahorn, who later won the Commonwealth Games gold medal in the event. Johnson went on to claim two gold medals (100 m and the 4×100 m relay) himself at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, plus a bronze in the 200 m.

Cleary, who would go on to follow all the Johnson drama live in Seoul in 1988, reflected many years later that “drugs seemed so out of character for the shy young man with a slight stutter” when they sat and talked on the infield waiting for the start of the 1986 nationals (although the Dubin Inquiry that followed revealed that his coach Charlie Francis had indeed orchestrated Johnson’s doping program since 1981).

Commonwealth Champs

Johnson was understandably a star attraction at the time, but there were many more memorable moments from the ’86 nationals.

McKoy came into the meet fresh off a record-setting indoor performance in Japan, where he ran the 50 m hurdles in 6.25 seconds — a record which still stands today.

McKoy breezed to his sixth straight national title in the 110 m hurdles with a time of 13.86. And much like Johnson, McKoy capped off his summer of ’86 by taking home a couple of gold medals (sprint hurdles and 4×100 m relay) at the Commonwealth Games.

Milt Ottey had been the world’s #1-ranked high jumper in 1982, but he struggled to regain those heights after a broken leg in 1983. At the ’86 nationals, Ottey showed he was back in full form with a Canadian and Commonwealth record jump of 2.33 m – despite nearly missing the meet.

Ottey had overslept after only returning to Toronto from a meet in West Germany two days earlier and drove “with the pedal to the floor” to make it to Ottawa.

“It was a trying day,” recounted Ottey, who injured his planting leg during an early jump. “I swore I wasn’t going to get over 2.28 m. On the record jump, it was the most relaxed I was in competition. I don’t know why.”

Ottey went on to clear 2.30 m in Edinburgh to beat Geoff Parsons of the host nation for his second consecutive Commonwealth Games gold.

Los Angeles 1984 Olympic bronze medallist Lynn Williams proved she had fully recovered from a stress fracture in winning the women’s 3,000 m. She went on to claim Commonwealth Games gold for Canada that summer, as did Graeme Fell (men’s 3,000 m steeplechase), Ray Lazdins (men’s discus), Angella Issajenko (women’s 200 m) and the women’s 4×400 m relay team headed by Charmaine Crooks.

Ottawa Proud

Several local athletes had the chance to compete at home on the national stage, with a few climbing the podium.

Ann Peel of the East Ottawa Lions won the women’s 5 km race walk but was frustrated that women’s race walking wasn’t yet on the Commonwealth Games programme.

“A lot of the top walkers (in the world) are from the Commonwealth and you’d think they’d want to showcase them,” Peel commented to Cleary.

Alison Armstrong of the Lions was the defending national champion in the heptathlon and wound up finishing second by a narrow margin. She finished the first day in the lead, having set a new personal best in the 100-metre hurdles along the way, but wound up 47 points behind Linda Spenst’s winning total of 5,578 points.

Ottawan Mike Brennan was just barely edged out by Toronto’s Peter Massfeller in the men’s javelin throw. Brennan’s best throw of 68.68 m landed just shy of Massfeller’s toss of 68.74 m.

Young Guns

An 18-year-old Michael Smith of Kenora, ON earned his place on Canada’s Commonwealth Games team with a second-place showing in the decathlon, which was only the second time he completed all 10 events.

“You’re looking at the future of decathlon. I think it’s pretty obvious,” the victor Dave Steen said of Smith, who won a world junior silver medal later that season and went on to win senior world silver and bronze medals plus two Commonwealth Games gold.

Current Ottawa Lions coach and administrator Yolande Jones earned a place on Canada’s 1986 Commonwealth Games team as a 19-year-old. The recent Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame inductee ran a personal-best time of 13.55 seconds in the women’s 100 m hurdles at the nationals.

And the 1986 nationals also included an 18-year-old Laurentian High School student named Glenroy Gilbert. The Ottawa Sport Hall of Famer and current Athletics Canada head coach was still 10 years away from becoming an Olympic champion in the men’s 4×100 m relay and hadn’t yet totally found his sprinting legs. Gilbert competed only in the triple jump, placing sixth.

Notes & Anecdotes

• Among the legion of volunteer officials was an 82-year-old Warren Joseph Montabone. A dozen years earlier, he snuck onto the track after competition had concluded at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand and successful cleared a hurdle at age 70. Montabone had represented Canada as a hurdler at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics, and told Cleary the Games were more friendly and less nationalistic then. “[Now it] is win at any cost,” Montabone said, perhaps prophetically, two years outside the Seoul Games. “When you used to lose, you’d congratulate the winner. You don’t see that anymore.”

• The 1986 Canadian Track and Field Championships concluded on the same day that Diego Maradona scored a pair of goals to oust England en route to Argentina’s World Cup title in Mexico.

• High-jumper Debbie Brill had to withdraw due to an Achilles injury 16 years after winning her first Commonwealth Games title. Her “Brill Bend” technique is still commonly used by elite athletes in the sport.

• Reported Cleary: “Mike Mahovlich, the favourite in the men’s javelin, sneezed his way out of the championships. Mahovlich took a sneezing fit three hours before his event and pulled a cartilage muscle in his rib cage.”