Riley Fontaine of Winnipeg Optimist Athletics clears the bar in early going during the U-18 women’s pole vault. [Stephen J. Thorne/LM]

Up! 100 images of the Legion National Youth Track & Field Championships (Part 2)

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

More than 1,000 athletes were up, down and everywhere in between at the 2025 Legion National Youth Track & Field Championships in Calgary Aug. 8-10, 2025.

Here is the second instalment of the Top 100 photographs of the competition.

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Admiralty House served a plethora of military purposes over the years. Today, it’s home to the Naval Museum of Halifax. [Dan Conlin/Wikimedia]

An armchair tour of the Naval Museum of Halifax

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

The Naval Museum of Halifax is a story unto itself. It’s a tale that arguably begins in 1818, upon completion of the Georgian-style structure as part of the city’s renowned dockyard. Rather than a home for artifacts at the time, however, it was the official summer residence for the admiral of the Royal Navy’s North American Station. Not until after 1904, when the Brits ceded the area’s defence, did these grand stone walls become distinctly Canadian.

Admiralty House, as it’s still known today, served a plethora of purposes over the succeeding years, from accommodating Massachusetts relief workers following the 1917 Halifax Explosion—having itself been damaged in the blast—to an officers’ mess amid the Battle of the Atlantic. It has operated as a museum since 1974, nestled within the confines of Canadian Forces Base Halifax (HMCS Stadacona).

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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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• The summer of ’44: Canadians from Normandy to the Dutch border
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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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