Canadian Working and Below Armour have teamed up for the 2025 Canadian U Sports activities indoor monitor and discipline season to spotlight a number of the nation’s brightest skills. Every week, main as much as the 2025 U Sports activities Monitor and Area Championships in Windsor, Ont., in March, Canadian Working will choose one male and one feminine athlete because the Below Armour Athletes of the Week.
The athlete of the week can be a female and male monitor and discipline athlete who achieved a standout efficiency, broke a college document or crushed a private greatest. These athletes can be featured on the Canadian Working website and awarded the UA Infinite Elite operating shoe. Western College’s Vivian Ogor and College of Regina’s Jonathan Podbielski have been chosen as this week’s Below Armour U Sports activities Athletes of the Week for his or her performances on Feb. 21-22.
Vivian Ogor, Western College (OUA)
Final weekend was one to recollect for Western College’s Vivian Ogor, who hurtled to a brand new program and OUA document on the OUA Championships in Windsor, Ont., on Saturday. The 24-year-old clocked a blistering 7.22 to win the 60m remaining, smashing her personal faculty document of seven.28 set in 2024 and edging out Guelph Gryphon Gabrielle Cole by 0.01 seconds. Each athletes snuck below the previous OUA document of seven.23 set in 2015 by Canadian Olympian Khamica (Bingham) Forbes.
“I don’t have plenty of phrases to explain that race,” Ogor informed Canadian Working. “I’m nonetheless in shock fascinated with it. It was like every thing clicked–the celebrities aligned, and I lastly acquired the race and time I’ve been hungry for.” The Mustang athlete’s run marks the fifth-fastest 60m in Canadian historical past and the second-fastest this 12 months–second to solely Canadian 100m and 200m document holder Audrey Leduc. “My Western household being simply as or extra excited and being there for me in that second was really one thing I’ll always remember,” she mentioned.
Ogor reveals that the season had been considerably irritating up to now, with setbacks together with hamstring, foot and Achilles issues. “Seeing all my arduous work, dedication and resilience present, and having the ability to execute whereas being injured, was extraordinarily emotional for me,” she added.
With U Sports activities quickly approaching, Ogor has turned her focus to attaining her remaining targets of the indoor season. “[One] purpose for the remainder of the season is to complete it in a single piece,” she mentioned, hoping to maintain her accidents at bay. “I might like to be the 60m champion in addition to get the U Sports activities 60m document. I positively really feel it’s potential for myself and inside my attain–I do know I can run even quicker.” Ogor, the reigning U Sports activities silver medallist, additionally desires of incomes a spot on the Canadian workforce headed to March’s World Indoor Championships.
The athlete additionally says the lads’s and ladies’s Mustangs groups are hungry for double banners on the nationwide championships. “It’s not going to be simple, however we’re ready and able to get the job finished, come March seventh,” she mentioned.
Jonathan Podbielski, College of Regina (CanWest)
Eventually weekend’s CanWest Championships in Regina, the College of Regina’s Jonathan Podbielski perfected the long-lasting middle-distance triple–taking residence gold within the 1,000m, 1,500m and three,000m occasions. Within the 1,500m, his third occasion of the weekend, the 20-year-old clocked 3:45.92 to win by a 10-second margin, smashing the CanWest convention document of three:47.43. His successful occasions for the 1,000m and three,000m have been 2:25.80 and eight:20.26, respectively.
“I really feel superior about my races,” Podbielski informed Canadian Working. “I used to be capable of attain all my targets throughout convention weekend. However I’m even happier for my teammate, Ian Teichler, who was capable of take second within the 1,500m and can now be becoming a member of me in toeing the road at U Sports activities.”
The third-year athlete holds the College of Regina program information in all three occasions, and is the reigning U Sports activities 1,000m silver medallist and 1,500m bronze medallist. Final 12 months, he additionally anchored the Cougars workforce to silver within the 4 x 800m relay.
“My purpose for the remainder of the season is to lastly win U Sports activities gold in considered one of my occasions,” he mentioned. “I’m planning on doing the triple, and probably the 4 x 800m relay as properly.” If taking up all 4 occasions on the nationwide competitors, Podbielski will race thrice on Friday and as soon as on Saturday–a complete of 6.3 km of racing. He heads into the competitors ranked inside the high 4 for all three particular person occasions.