Ward 5 Athletes Shine at 2026 Ottawa Sports Awards
- Ward 5 Staff
- 22 hours ago
- 3 min read
I was pleased to be on hand on Wednesday Feb 4 to help present awards at the annual Ottawa Sports Awards. It was a proud night for West Carleton-March with some outstanding local athletes and teams recognized for their incredible achievements over the past year.
Ski Cross athlete Hannah Schmidt enjoyed another strong season on the world stage. She opened 2025 with a gold medal at the FIS Ski Cross World Cup in Austria. Returning from injury in September, the 2022 Olympian claimed second at a South American Cup event and closed out the year with a seventh-place finish at the World Cup stop in Italy. Hannah currently sits eleventh overall in the 2025-26 FIS standings, an improvement on last season’s twelfth-place finish and will represent Canada again at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy this month.
Dunrobin’s Caily Lemmex continues to make her mark in snowboard cross as a member of the Ontario High Performance Team. Competing in the U15 category in 2025, Caily captured the Canadian Junior SBX National Championship while also earning Ontario and Quebec Provincial Championship titles. Training at Mont Ste. Marie with Club Prestige and the Peak Centre in Kanata, she is set to begin FIS international competition in 2026, another exciting next step in a very promising career.
On the diamond, Conner Hopper delivered a memorable performance for Team Ontario at the Canada Summer Games, blasting a momentum-shifting grand slam to help secure the gold medal. The West Carleton Electric U20 standout also earned bronze at the Ontario Amateur Softball Association provincial tournament, competed at the Softball Canada U20 Men’s Championship with the Plattsville Lightning where the team reached the medal round, and took part in ISC World Tournament qualifying events earlier in the year.
The Huntley Curling Club’s Team Frlan was honoured after an exceptional season that saw them crowned Ontario U18 Champions and represent the province at the Canadian U18 Curling Championships. Congratulations to Katrina Frlan, Erika Wainwright, Samantha Wall, Lauren Norman, and Byron Scott on their impressive accomplishments and for proudly representing our community on the national stage.
The West Ottawa Wild U16 AA Ringette Team captured Ringette Ontario’s U16 AA Provincial Championship with several players on the team from West Carleton-March. Congrats to Olivia Binder, Amélie Carrière, Aurélie Lacourcière, Rachel Macdonald, Cassidy Marchment, McKenna Foley, Lia Ferguson, Lucy Fischer, Addison Fracker, Mya Grimm, Emily Jessiman, Zoey Lorimer, Mia Maahs, Jasmine Paquette, Charlotte Upshall, Barry Gorham, Lindsay Frechette, Blayne Ferguson, Janet Lorimer, Lisa Fischer, France Paquette, Sophie Vallee.
Dunrobin’s Ottawa River Canoe Club was also recognized with two major honours. Club members Kevin Tobin and Mustafa Hussein were celebrated as 2025 Canadian Canoe Sprint Champions in the men’s K2 200m.
The club’s PaddleAll program earned the 2025 National Championship PaddleAll Burgee, with club members Zachary Babin, Dylan Gravelle, Mustafa Hussein, Mohammed D’Amine, Sarah Madore, Melanie Manion, Ewan McMillan, Michael Meehan, Marc Racz, Athishan Ramashan, Kevin Tobin, Maxwell Wandel, Max Wismer, and Henning Wismer all contributing to the national title.
Congratulations to all athletes, and please reach out if I've missed anyone from Ward 5 so that they can be highlighted. More photos from the evening here: https://www.flickr.com/.../2001.../albums/72177720331863896/
