British Columbia Blind Sports and Recreation Association

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Athletics: Profiles

Jason Delesalle
Courtney Knight
Ljiljana (Lilo) Ljubisic
Ryan Ollis
Dustin Walsh

Jason Delesalle
Sight class: B3
Events and Best Performances:
Pentathlon - 3,010 points and Paralympic Games record holder
Discus - 42.36 metres
Javelin - 51.36 metres

A member of Canada's national team since 1990, Delesalle continues to excel at all levels of competition. He currently holds both the Canadian and Paralympic Games record for the pentathlon. A nationally carded athlete, Delesalle is also a cashier at Home Depot as part of the company's 'O Program', designed to give training athletes work flexibility so they can train and work effectively.

Courtney Knight
Sight class: B3
Events and Best Performances:
Pentathlon - 2,852 points
Discus - 40.28 metres
Shot put - 11.27 metres

On the national team since 1992, Knight holds the Canadian record for the pentathlon, long jump, 100m, 200m, 800m, shot put and discus. In 1995, Knight won the discus at the BC high School Championships, becoming the first disabled athlete ever to win an event at the meet that features BC's top high school athletes. In the same year, she became the fist disabled athlete to qualify for a sighted provincial team when she was named to Team BC for both the Western Canada Games and the Canadian Junior Championships. A graduate from Simon Fraser University's communications and kinesiology programs, Knight currently trains full time.

Ljiljana (Lilo) Ljubisic
Sight class: B1 (totally blind)
Events and Best Performances:
Goalball - member of the 1984-85 gold medal winning world cup team
Discus - 40. Metres
Shot put - 11.18 metres

Ljiljana has been a powerful force to be reckoned with in the international sporting arena for an amazing 18 years. In addition to many other honors and awards she has received throughout her long athletic career, she is also a 5-time Paralympic athlete and world record holder with 3 bronze, 2 silver and 1 gold Paralympic medals to her credit. Ljiljana continues to challenge herself to reach new goals set in the athletic arena and continues towards achieving another milestone of personal and athletic greatness by defending her world titles at the 2002 Athletic World Championships to be held in France.

Along with her athletic achievements, Lilo maintains time for other pursuits. She lends her expertise by serving a number of national and international volunteer boards where most recently she was elected as vice chair of the IPC Athletes' Committee. Although Coquitlam, BC is where Lilo calls home, she is often found travelling around the globe fulfilling her other commitments as a sought after motivational and inspirational speaker. Her goal is to continue sharing her positive and hope filled message with audiences all over the world and to become an author.

Ryan Ollis
Sight class: B3
Events and Best Performances:
1,500m - 4:32.01
3,000m - 9:42.45
5,000m - 17:17.55

A relatively new athlete to blind athletics, Ollis, both visually impaired and deaf, has shown incredible promise. Having gained valuable competitive experiences this past year, Ollis is quickly emerging as one of Canada's strongest distance runners. No doubt with more development, Ollis will be regularly competing at the international level. He attends Langara College where he plans to complete the program for special education teachers.

Dustin Walsh
Sight class: B1
Guide Runner:
Events and Best Performances:
100m - 15.09
200m - 29.70
400m - 65.87

Canada's top junior sprinter, Walsh is quickly gaining respect as a force to be reckoned with here in BC, across Canada and around the world. He is currently the junior record holder for all three of his events. He finished fourth against senior athletes in the 400m at the 2001 Pan American Games for the Blind. An accomplished percussionist, Walsh also attends Douglas College, pursuing studies in music.

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