International Track Classic July 1, 2011 - Classique Internationale D'Athlétisme Juillet 1, 2011
2009 Alberta Race Walk Championships, Edmonton, AB, September 12 ,2009
Dunfee and Gomez
Men 10k masculin
1. Inaki Gomez, 43:36
Men 20k masculin
1. Evan Dunfee, 1:29.13 (Personal Record)
Note : This is the fastest time posted at this distance by a junior athlete in Canada.
TORONTO – For Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, it was both the ultimate compliment and a huge annoyance.
While the hurdler from Whitby, Ont., ran at the World Athletics Final last Saturday in Thessaloniki, Greece, someone rifled through her track bag and stole her training journal.
“I guess I’m doing something right, somebody wants to steal my workouts,” Lopes-Schliep said in a phone interview Wednesday. “In a way, I feel honoured that somebody is looking that hard at me and they want to know what I’m doing, but at the same time I’m annoyed that someone would steal my book.
“Somebody obviously feels threatened and wants to know what I’m doing. . . but they’ll always be a year behind.”
Lopes-Schliep was fourth in the 100-metre hurdles in Greece, capping a season that saw her capture Canada’s only medal – a silver – at the world track and field championships in August.
The training journal documented every workout from this past season in detail.
“A training log is an athlete’s bible, it outlines absolutely everything in terms of workouts from the rest to the recovery,” said the hurdler’s agent Kris Mychasiw. “It’s a shame that someone took it.
“But track and field is a very small world where everyone know everything, I just hope it turns up.”
Lopes-Schliep ran 12.61 at the World Athletics Final, tying three other runners that had identical times including Perdita Felicien of Pickering, Ont. After studying the photo finish, officials awarded silver to American Dawn Harper, bronze to Delloreen Ennis-London of Jamaica, fourth to Lopes-Schliep, and fifth to Felicien. Jamaica’s Brigitte Foster-Hylton claimed the gold in 12.58.
Lopes-Schliep discovered her journal had been pinched shortly after the race – the only thing missing from her bag that included a cellphone, pair of spikes and clothes.
“The book was in the back part under my clothes,” she said. “They knew what they were looking for. They didn’t want anything else.”
The bag was never out of her sight for more than five minutes at a time, both during the warmup and the race, when she left it in the women’s dressing room.
“Different coaches have different workout plans, so if was to see someone doing a specific workout, I would know. . . hey, that’s my workout,” she said. “Different coaches, different strategies, different plans. It’s interesting to end the season that way.”
The biggest annoyance is not being able to look back at specific times of a season during which Lopes-Schliep was consistently among the top hurdlers in the world, picking up where she left off after winning bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“I like to be able to look year to year what I’m doing, say, a week before Melrose (Games in New York), I can look back and see what I was doing,” she said. “It’s just neat to see the progress. I won’t be able to see it this year, unfortunately.”
From now on, she plans to document everything on her computer.
Besides her own daily routine, Lopes-Schliep jotted down research in her journal on her aunts’ struggles with diabetes. Lopes-Schliep has a genetic condition called lipodystrophy that several of the women in her family suffer from. One of its characteristics is a decrease in fat that’s evident in her muscular physique. It can also lead to diabetes.
Lopes-Schliep flew home from Greece on Monday, and plans to take a month completely off before she eases back into training for next season.
“Once you get past that month, it’s almost like I start getting that itchy feeling like I need to do something, the track is just ingrained in me. Then when we finally start, it’s like I can’t wait for my first race, and then I can’t wait to run fast again, and I can’t wait to run in a big championship.
“We were at the world championships and I turned to Anthony (McLeary, her coach) and said, ‘It feels like yesterday that we were in Beijing at the Olympics, the year flew by.’
“Beijing it felt like I ran out of the stadium so quickly. This year I didn’t run around so quickly, I let it soak in and absorbed it.”
Rudisha and Reed at WAF photo by Getty
Gary Reed of Kamloops won the silver medal today at the World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki, Greece before a crowd of 27,500. David Lekuta Rudisha of Kenya took the gold in 1:44.85 after a tactical 53.0 second first lap of 400m. Rudisha leads the world in 2009 with his 1:42.01 clocking this season. Gary was lying in 7th spot with 200m to go but delivered a tremendous closing finish to pass world champion, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa and Olympic champion, Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia. Reed improved on his 4th place at the 2009 Beijing Olympics and equaled his 2007 silver medal at the World Championships with his 1:45.23.
Priscilla Lopes Schliep and Perdita Felicien hit the line in the 100m hurdles in a blanket finish where 2nd through 5th place recorded identical times of 12.61. The world champion, Brigitte Foster-Hylton of Jamaica lead with 12.58 while Dawn Harper of the US, Delloreen Ennis -London of Jamaica were awarded the silver and bronze medal positions after prolonged inspection of the photo finish. This gave Priscilla and Perdita the 4th and 5th spots. Needless to say, this event is perhaps the most competitive event in the IAAF schedule. Priscilla took the bronze in Beijing and the silver medalat the World Championship in Berlin.
Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops struggled in the shot put recording 19.61m in 8th place behind Christian Cantwell of the US who won with 22.16m
Sultana Frizell of Ottawa threw 68.07m for 6th place behind winner Betty Heidler of Germany in the women’s hammer throw.
Nate Brannen of Ontario came 9th in the 1500m in 3:40.12 as William Tanui of Kenya took the gold in 3:35.04
ACHILLES’ ATHLETES OF THE MONTH-August 2009
OLYMPIC DIVISION
Gary Reed
Gary Reed
As predicted getting through the heats and semis in Berlin was a challenge. With only 2 to qualify in each round, advancing to the finals would take luck, which Gary did not have this time. World and Olympic competitions are definitely a different game when “pacemakers” are out of the formula. Gary placed exactly where he ranked on the start list as it turned out 10th spot. In Zurich he place 5th and in Bruxelles (click for video)took the bronze medal ahead of the World Champion, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa. This event is perhaps the most difficult to predict as on any given day the top 10 can change places.
Priscilla takes Berlin!
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep
Priscilla proved once again that she is our best athlete as she moved up a notch from Beijing with her silver medal to be our sole podium finish in Berlin. Perdita Felicien made the Berlin final but ran into bad luck with “cramps” at the start. Later she defeated Priscilla in Zurich taking the bronze in 12.61 and is ranked 7th in the world behind Priscilla’s 2nd place position. Priscilla ran her pb of 12.49 in Bruxelles (click for video)with a narrow loss to Brigitte Foster-Hylton of Jamaica , the World Champion. The 100m hurdles is clearly our best event as we rank number 3 in the world behind Jamaica and the US.
JUNIOR DIVISION
Gabriel El Hanbli
Gabriel El Hanbli takes the under 20 category with his 51.47 pb in the 400h hurdles and his gold medal in the Canada Summer Games. Gabriel, from Repentigny, Quebec took 5th place in the Pan American Games Junior Championships. He has improved almost 2 seconds from his 2008 best of 53.48
Julie Labonte
Julie Labonté of Ste-Justine, QC won the Canada summer Games with her16.23m. She had set the Canadian Junior record as she won the 2009 Canadian Junior Championships with 16.39m. She also took the silver Medal at the Pan American Junior Championships in Trinidad. Last fall she was the winner of Eric E. Coy Memorial Trophy – Outstanding Junior Athlete of the Year as she won the gold medal in shot put at the Commonwealth Youth Games by throwing 15.02m.
YOUTH DIVISION
Akeem Haynes
Akeem Haynes of Calgary wins the 17 years and under section with his Canada Summer Games victory in the 100m with his 10.47 (1.3). This high school student at Crescent Heights is ranked 10th in the world in the Youth division. He has a pending Canadian Youth record of 21.48 in the 200m. This was his first year of full sprint training after playing football.
Katie Reid #65
Katie Reid of Surrey, BC won the gold at the Canadian Youth Championships in the 400m and has a pb of 54.90. This grade 10 student at Earl Marriot Secondary took the bronze at the Canada Summer Games. This 16 year old Ocean Athletics speed star was edged by another runner of the same age, Carly Paracholski of Manitoba in Charlottetown but defeated her in Sherbrooke
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Sept. 3, 2009
The Monroe Monitor & Valley News
August 4, 2009
By Polly Keary, editor
It was perhaps the most famous moment in American Olympic history. It was 1936, and Hitler was just beginning to ramp up his white supremacist rhetoric. African American runner Jesse Owens crossed the finish line at the Berlin Olympics easily in first, a living repudiation of Hitler’s racist philosophy. Sharing the moment, just two steps behind Owens, was American runner Lee Orr, of Monroe. Orr died Thursday, July 23, at home. He was 92.
Gladys Orr, Lee Orr’s wife, said that she always knew about his Olympic accomplishments. But it wasn’t until after his death that she learned about his other athletic accomplishments.
“He went to grade school here and excelled at some things in school, but I didn’t know he did until they brought out things for his memorial,” she said.
Orr wasn’t much for blowing his own horn. But his athletic promise showed up early. The native of Saskatchewan, Canada, came to Monroe in 1920 at the age of three, where his father had a watchmaking business and his grandfather had a carpentry business, and then entered Park Place School.
While still in Park Place School, in the sixth grade, he won his first track trophy. He went on to letter in football and track for the Monroe Union High School Bearcats.
“I can remember one touchdown he made in football where John Danhoff gave a key block for Lee and Lee ran around left end and no one could catch him,” said fellow student Merv Boyes to a relative of Orr’s. “He had amazing speed.”
He dominated competitions in sprint, broad jump, 100-yard dash, 220- yard dash and relay. In May 1935, he was the high point earner at two county track meets. Part of the reason he was so fast is that every day for lunch, he ran from school to his father’s jewelry store, a mile away.
He ultimately won two state titles and still holds the record for the 220-yard dash.
After high school, Orr ran for the Washington State University Cougars, working as a stock boy for $35 a day to get through school in the days before athletic scholarships. The six-foot, 175 pound freshman dazzled his coaches. He went on to eight Pacific Coast North Division titles and an NCAA championship in the 440-yard run. And he and his brother Jack ran with the Cougar relay team that set a world record in June, 1937. Orr was inducted into the Washington Athletic Hall of Fame.
But the highlight of his career came when he qualified to go to the Olympics. Because Orr was born in Canada, he was a Canadian citizen, and won a slot on the Canadian Olympic team in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in Vancouver, B.C. in 1936 at the age of 18. He placed fifth in the 200-meter dash, following Jesse Owens.
To his surprise, he did even better in the quarter-finals, when he equaled the world record of 21.2 seconds.
In the finals, he said that it was more of a thrill to lose to Jesse Owens than to win any other race. He described Owens as very likable, a nice, quiet and modest man.
Orr also stood just 10 feet from Hitler, Goebles and Goering, who would go on to become the most infamous war criminals in history. At the time, they didn’t seem so bad, Orr later commented. And Germans were very friendly.
In 1938, Orr graduated with a degree in teaching, and put his athletic career behind him, although he remained fit and active for the rest of his life. He did, however, return to Germany in World War II, this time to fight Hitler. During his 18 months in the war, he ran and played football for fun. At one meet, he was presented with a medal by General George Patton himself.
Upon returning from the war, he went to work for the Hormel Meat Packing plant in Seattle, where he met the woman he would spend the last half of his life with. At first, he was too much of a company man to date any of his subordinates, said Gladys, who went to work for him in 1950. But then he was transferred to Nebraska for seven years. “I got to know him better after he went to Nebraska because me came back for vacations,” said Gladys. They went on a lot of motorcycle rides, a passion Orr picked up living in Nebraska.
The people he rose with in Nebraska remained in contact for decades after that, said Gladys. And they went camping a lot, another pastime Orr loved.
The couple moved to Monroe and spent the next 30 years working on their home and property just east of Monroe on U.S. 2. During that time, the couple never spent the night apart. They shared a lot of joy, but a lot of sorrow too. Gladys lost her only son 12 years ago, and Lee lost his only daughter one year ago.
Orr loved his grandkids a great deal, including a great granddaughter, who just did a show-and-tell on her great grandpa’s Olympic accomplishments. Now those accomplishments will be shared with all, as many of Orr’s medals and trophies will go to the Monroe Historical Society.
What Gladys hopes people know, in addition to Orr’s athletic prowess, was that he was also a good person. “He was the kindest man in the world,” said Gladys. “He was really great to know.”
