By

Terry Fleurie


July 27, 2021

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Tokyo – Two Ottawa Valley natives will be taking to the track tomorrow (Thursday) night in Tokyo as they pursue their dream of bringing an Olympic medal back to Canada.

Eganville native Melissa Bishop-Nriagu and Pembroke’s Madeleine (Maddy) Kelly will be joined by fellow Canadian Lindsey Butterworth in the opening heats of the womens 800-metre event on July 29 commencing at 8:55 p.m. The Leader has attempted to determine which of the heats the Canadian women will be in but were unable to do so by press time. The Olympic schedule shows Heat 1 beginning at 8:55 with subsequent heats going every eight minutes until Heat 6 at 9:35 p.m.

Bishop-Nriagu, who is competing in her third Olympics, was named one of the co-captains of the Canadian team recently. The daughter of Doug and Alison Bishop, of Eganville, she will be trying to better her fourth-place finish in Rio in 2016. For Kelly, the daughter of Chris and Caroline Kelly, of Pembroke, this is her first appearance at the games and her goal is to advance to the semi-finals.

This is also the first appearance at the Olympics for Butterworth, who captured the Cnadian Womens 800 championship earlier this year, beating both Bishop-Nriagu and Kelly, at the Olympic qualifiers in Montreal.