When the Louis Riel Dome collapsed last season, Carleton’s track and field athletes lost their primary indoor training facility. Despite crowded practices, an unconventional two-lane track and cross-border trips for proper training space, the Ravens women’s team has turned those challenges into a season defined by resilience and success.
For Michaella Appiah-Kubi — who competes in the indoor 60- and 300-metre events — a mid-February matchup brought personal bests in both races at the RSEQ conference championships in Windsor.
Appiah-Kubi also set a PR in the indoor 200 metres at a meet in the United States, an event not run in Canadian indoor competitions.
Personal bests came during what has been one of the hardest seasons of her career, with the Ravens facing constant adversity and limited training resources.
Windsor “was a huge deal for me because I actually hadn’t PR’d all season,” Appiah-Kubi said. “It’s been a really challenging season, honestly, not really seeing much progress. It’s really started to take an effect on me.”
The lack of a training facility “pushes me to really work with what I have,” she said.
Appiah-Kubi first got into track and field in fourth grade after watching her older brother pick up the sport.
She started running in the fifth grade, joining a club track team where she competed until COVID-19 shuttered youth sports in 2020.
In her first season with Carleton last year, the collapse of the Louis Riel Dome turned training into an unconventional obstacle course.
After the collapse, many athletes redshirted, and the Ravens were left training in the Carleton Field House on a two-lane track that forms a rectangle around the indoor soccer field.
But the track is a hot commodity for many athletic groups on campus.. On some weekends, the Ravens cross the border to Canton, N.Y., to use St. Lawrence University’s indoor track,
Appiah Kubi said heading south is a time-consuming affair.
“This season has honestly been the hardest for me, I would say, because of the lack of facilities,” she said. “Sometimes when I come home for breaks, I try to use the facilities that I have in my area.”
Appiah-Kubi’s teammate, Rose Basu, said training at the field house also brought its own unique advantages.
I think that’s got a lot of us noticed more. It’s kind of like survival of the fittest,” Basu said.
Given the challenging nature of this season, Appiah-Kubi says she has leaned on herself and her routine a lot.
“My desire to be better,” she said. “I know what I’m capable of. So when things aren’t really going my way, it’s personal. I kind of like when things are challenging, I push myself because I know that I’m capable of so much more.”
She says her habits and prep for races have been key for best positioning herself to succeed, regardless of circumstances.
“I started meal prepping this season and I found it to really be effective,” Appiah-Kubi added, adding she has more energy compared to last year when she relied on eating from the dining hall. “The week leading up to a meet, I’m eating really healthy the whole week, making sure I’m drinking water, taking my vitamins, trying to sleep on time.”
Appiah-Kubi’s race day prep revolves around focus and mental peace. She turns off her phone, sets aside schoolwork and says a prayer over a call with her “best hype man”: her mom. She listens to music before the race to get in the zone and visualizes how the race will unfold and what she plans to do on the track.
Appiah-Kubi mentions support from her teammates cheering her on gives her momentum to finish a race when her legs are tired and “really makes a difference.”
She ran her career-slowest time in the 300-metre race this year.
“I wasn’t feeling well physically, I had a cold at the time, and really wanted to get through the race,” she said. But the failure taught Appiah-Kubi the importance of presence of mind and maintaining positivity.
For Basu, who also had an unprecedentedly successful season this year, becoming a track athlete seemed to be in the stars for her.
Both of her parents, who were athletes while she was growing up, signed up a young and uninterested Rose into the Ottawa Lions summer camp.
She ultimately found that the sprints were where she belonged, taking pride and confidence in competing in the high-profile event.
Having been a part of the Ottawa Lions Club for many years and wanting to stay in Ottawa for post-secondary studies, Carleton was an easy choice for Basu.
Similar to Appiah-Kubi, she says she has high expectations for herself and is quite hard on herself.
“I find I’m very hard on myself,” Basu said. “When I set a goal, I just want to show the world that I can do it because I know I can.”
The Ravens track team is a relatively small program. The Lions operate both the Carleton and uOttawa track and cross country programs, making the relationship with the GeeGees a friendlier one rather than a heated rivalry.
Despite the strong support from coaches and teammates, Basu stresses that track and field is an individual sport.
“It’s your dream and your responsibility to make that dream happen, and it helps to have teammates around you who have the same dream,” she said.
On Feb. 21, the Ravens went on to a fifth-place finish in the RESQ Championships.
Basu set a PR of 7.56 seconds in the 60-metre event and clinched a bronze medal, barely missing the 7.54 mark to set a Ravens record.
Appiah-Kubi, meanwhile, also set another PR in the 60-metre event. She finished ninth, narrowly missing out on scoring points.
Basu and Appiah-Kubi then impressed in the 300-metre race, moving them to second and third place on the Ravens’ all-time rankings and grabbing important points for Carleton’s team ranking.
Looking ahead, Appiah-Kubi says hitting PRs has given her the motivation to compete this summer. While she hasn’t trained over the summer since finishing high school two years ago, she feels confident that with determination, she can rise to the challenge.
“Things are finally going how I wanted it to go,” Appiah-Kubi said. “I feel like it gave me a boost of motivation to keep going.”
Photo by Mundo Sports Images
