Lily Stroda of B.C./Yukon defended her Nationals U-18 heptathlon title in dominant style, breaking fellow-B.C.er Niki Oudenaarden’s 10-year-old national record with 5,573 points. Stroda won the LeRoy Washburn Award as the championships’ top female Legion athlete. [Stephen J. Thorne/LM]

100 images (Part 1): Legion Nationals produce record-breaking performances

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

The 47th Legion National Youth Track and Field Championships proved memorable, producing a pair of national record-breakers in heptathlete Lily Stroda from British Columbia/Yukon and sprinter Dennis Iriowen of Ontario.

Confronting a variety of weather in Calgary, from cold and wet to hot and dry, Stroda turned in a dominating performance in the seven-event heptathlon. As she set out to defend her 2024 title, she swept all four events on the first day of competition and went on to break a 10-year-old record set by fellow-British Columbian Niki Oudenaarden.

Her 5,573 points were almost 1,000 ahead of her closest opponent. The spellbinding effort earned Stroda the LeRoy Washburn Award as the championships’ top female Legion athlete.

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Military historian and author David O’Keefe. [@okeefehistorian/x]

Historian David O’Keefe on a suspicious WW II aircrew loss

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“This is the most intriguing story I’ve ever come across,” remarked historian David O’Keefe about the loss of Lancaster bomber LL862 in July 1944. Coming from the best-selling author of revelatory read One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada’s Tragedy at Dieppe, it could be argued that that’s really saying something.

Rather than one day, however, this latest mystery is shrouded in a single night.

The mostly Canadian eight-man crew of 101 Squadron—a formation specializing in state-of-the-art electronic warfare—had embarked on a bombing mission over Homberg, Germany. That they hadn’t returned wasn’t suspicious in itself. On the contrary, Royal Air Force Bomber Command had long endured appalling losses, both of men and machinery, in its raids over the Reich. What didn’t add up, however, were the precise circumstances in which two flyers survived while others had perished.

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