Athlete Profiles

Jerome Classic meet record threatened by Perdita on July 1.

June 21, 2011 By harryjerome

Track and field

Perdita Felicien heads West in hunt for Olympic gold

ALLAN MAKI

CALGARY— From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Jun. 20, 2011 10:00PM EDT

Last updated Monday, Jun. 20, 2011 10:01PM EDT

Eight steps to the first hurdle. Three in between. Sprint, then lean at the finish. If Perdita Felicien has run the 100-metre hurdles once, she’s run it 10,000 times or more.

The difference these days is where she’s running – in a new city with new teammates and a new coach. It is all part of a fresh lead-up to the competition that has broken her heart and challenged her psyche.

“For me, the best way to describe the Olympics is they’re the boyfriend who avoids you,” said the woman who fell in Athens, then four years later injured a foot and couldn’t compete in Beijing. “You need to go after him.”

That Felicien has taken her Olympic pursuit to a city known for its Winter Olympics athletes and resources has caught many by surprise. Previously, she had been in Champaign, Ill., and Atlanta with coaches and contacts she has known for some time. At the University of Calgary, where she is working with former national team head coach Les Gramantik, Felicien moves about campus to the recurring question, “What are you doing here?”

Having just finished her first full week in Calgary, the Oshawa, Ont.-born Felicien is beginning to feel more at home.

“Les and my old coach, Gary Winckler, know each other and Les is overlooking things,” Felicien explained after a workout. “It’s a situation where I can get the medical and training, all the benefits of working with other like-minded athletes. Everyone has really embraced me. It feels good.”

One of the most compelling reasons for coming to Calgary was the presence of Jessica Zelinka, ranked the sixth-best heptathlete in the world. Zelinka and Felicien spent time together at recent Athletics Canada camps in Phoenix and Saint Kitts. They talked about working out together on a regular basis. It has been a pairing that has benefited both women as they head into this week’s Canadian track and field championships in Calgary and the 2011 IAAF world championships that begin Aug. 27 in South Korea.

“With Jessica being a good hurdler, Perdita has a solid training partner,” Gramantik insisted. “Stopwatches don’t motivate you; a training partner does.”

“Not many athletes get to race with such a great athlete in training,” Zelinka said of Felicien. “It’s interesting to hear what works for her.”

Felicien’s recent showings in Europe weren’t to her liking, and she joked about her results: “I was six in three races. I need an exorcist [for being 666].”

Having finished fourth overall last year, Felicien is still a podium threat no matter where she races. Although she turns 31 on Aug. 29, there are still world-class hurdlers running fast in their mid-30s, and Felicien is keen to embrace new ways to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second off her times. Of late, Gramantik and Felicien have taken her race apart, worked on segments, then reassembled everything in a way they hope will pay off.

“Every week, we work on a different aspect. We try to get more bang for our buck. The blessing being sixth [in three consecutive races] is you know where the weaknesses are and where we can get faster times,” she said. “I just want to get the end of my race coming along. It’s not as sharp as it should be.”

For all her successes – Felicien has been a multiple medalist as well as a world outdoor and indoor champion – the Olympics are the great “what ifs” of her career. In 2004, she was favoured to win gold but crashed after hitting the first hurdle. She carried on for the Beijing Olympics, only to suffer a bone fracture in her foot. She ended up working those Olympics as a commentator for CBC television and saw teammate Priscilla Lopes-Schliep win bronze in the 100-metre hurdles.

Lopes-Schliep is expecting her first child in September but is still planning to compete in London.

“I felt I would have been on that podium at the [2008] Olympics. Watching the medalists, it wasn’t about them or being upset that they’d won. It was more about how you missed that opportunity,” Felicien said. “That’s human nature.”

Felicien readily admitted the Olympics have a hold on her. Despite the two disappointments, she knows she’s fortunate to have another go at redemption. She believes she’s mentally stronger for whatever lies ahead.

“[The fall in 2004] was one of those things that got away from me. It happened, you analyze it. Yeah, it sucks. But you move on,” she said. “I know what it takes to prepare for the Olympics. I’ve been there before. We’re all great specimens. It’s about the mindset.”

And that’s why Felicien moved to Calgary – to change things up, feed her mind. So far, everything seems to be falling into step.

“If she wins an Olympic medal, she’ll be the most decorated female in Canadian athletics,’ Gramantik said. “That’s what she’s chasing.”

Filed Under: Dylan Armstrong, Uncategorized

Perdita off to Rome for Diamond League

May 17, 2011 By harryjerome

Rome, here I come

May 17, 2011 10:37 AM CBC sports
By Perdita Felicien

Perdita Felicien just got word that she’ll be making her hurdles season debut at the elite Diamond League meet in Rome next week. (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

I’m pretty good at nagging (yes, I grew up in a house full of women). So when it comes to pestering my agent, Renaldo Nehemiah, about getting me races, I’m a world champion at that too.

After four weeks of texting, emailing, telepathy and Blackberry messaging him at 3 a.m. (the best way to ensure you get someone’s attention, by the way) I finally got the good news: I am now confirmed for the Rome Diamond League meet on May 26.

Hooray for me! R.E.M for Renaldo.

This is a big race, and it will be my first for the 2011 season, a month later than I have opened up in seasons past. The reason is this spring I missed two weeks of training for a heel bruise. I was able to get back on track quickly. However, 10 days later I was sidelined with tendinitis. Rather than let it get worse, I took more than three weeks off to allow it to calm down.

I’m happy to say it’s all resolved, though it took most of April. Since I wasn’t able to run or hurdle, I spent a lot of time aqua-jogging at the community pool, which is a very strange place for a trackster.

Ab tips in the shower: Awkward!

One time I read the swim schedule wrong and accidentally attended an aquafit class for senior citizens. How cute. Bet you didn’t know they love to bob up and down to Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake and will veer into your invisible lane and inadvertently swat you with their aqua noodle upside the head. Ow!

A couple of them had no concept of the “Lather and Leave” policy every jock adheres to, making blatant eye contact and hitting me up for ab tips in the communal shower (“Really, Betsy and Martha? Right now?”). Awkward!

I was so happy to leave the water world behind and be back at the track, though I knew I wouldn’t be ready to race competitively until late May, thus targeting Rome. However, no matter how highly ranked you are in this sport, or how good you think you are, a lane confirmation is never a guarantee. Especially when it comes to the Diamond League, the highest level of meet and the most competitive in track and field.

If you haven’t posted a time yet, meet directors are sometimes cautious of handing you a lane at an elite meet all willy-nilly. Hence my putting pressure on my agent (“If I don’t race, we don’t eat, and you don’t sleep. So fix it. Tee hee.”)

So when Renaldo texted me saying I had a lane, I was super geeked! I wondered what he might have used to bribe them this year, and I also felt bad for interrupting his sleeping pattern for 28 straight nights. Sorry, Renaldo.

It’s going to be a tough race. The ladies will have a few more races under their belt, and I’ll have no low-key meets to get my feet wet or even know where I am. Hurdlers thrive on rhythm and we like to establish it early. Preferably when no one is really looking and when $10,000 and ranking points aren’t on the line.

But not this year. So bring on Rome!

Filed Under: Perdita Felicien

Lopes-Schliep ready for the world

July 29, 2009 By admin

Priscilla Lopes Schliep

By Paul Gains, special to CBC Sports

As the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin rapidly approach, Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep is showing the form that led her to a bronze medal performance at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

That 100-metre hurdles medal was Canada’s sole podium finish at the Bird’s Nest National Stadium in Beijing, and if she is feeling the pressure to repeat in Berlin from Aug. 15-23, Lopes-Schliep is handling it well.

“It is always in the back of your mind, being the only Olympic medallist for Canada,” she allows. “But I take the pressure and kind of feed off it.

“In the hurdles, you never know who is going to do what on what day. So you have to go out there and give it your all and attack every hurdle like it’s the last race you will ever have.”

On Tuesday, July 28, the 26-year-old native of Whitby, Ont., finished second in her specialty at Monaco’s Herculis Super Grand Prix Meet in a time of 12.54 seconds, just 0.02 off her season best, which she set in winning the Qatar Super Grand Prix meet in Doha. The field was stacked and possibly stronger than the one that will line up for the Berlin final, where preliminary rounds will likely eliminate some contenders.

Sally McLellan, the Olympic silver medallist from Australia, and one of Lopes-Schliep’s closest friends, won the race in 12.50, while the 2008 IAAF world indoor champion, Lolo Jones of the United States, finished third. Jones, who has the fastest time in the world this year at 12.47 seconds, fell at the U.S. championships and did not make the American team for the worlds.

The reigning Olympic champion, Dawn Harper of the United States, managed only sixth.

“It looked like a world athletics final, with all the girls in the race,” Lopes-Schliep said afterward, referring to the IAAF invitational meet that traditionally concludes the season. “You never know what is going to happen. I told Sally, ‘You gave me a real good run for my money and finished strong, and way to go.’

“Lolo and I hit hands in the middle of the race. We are all pushing and cheering for each other. I mean we are all going out there to attack and to win, but everybody supports one another. Everybody has had their ups and downs. We will see how the worlds go and then the world athletics final.”

Once again there is no clear-cut favourite in the women’s hurdles, throwing the medal possibilities wide open.
Tensions with Felicien

Perhaps the only notable athlete missing from the Monaco field was Canadian champion Perdita Felicien. The tension between the two Canadians is palpable. They are two very different personalities. While Felicien can appear aloof, Lopes-Schliep is outgoing and friendly. For instance, following her interviews with journalists at the Canadian championships in Toronto, where Felicien edged her out for the title, she joked with the reporters, “I hope you are all wearing your sun screen, guys.”

Losing to the 2003 IAAF world champion was a bitter result for Lopes-Schliep to handle as she had beaten Felicien four times straight prior to the national championships. When the pair returned to Europe, Lopes-Schliep beat Felicien in the next two races. Felicien finished ahead of her in London on July 24.

At the time of nationals, Lopes-Schliep admitted her hurdling technique was at fault. “Too much air” over the hurdles, as she put it. But there was another factor she now reveals.

“I came back from being in Europe before nationals and felt very tight,” she explains. “I knew something wasn’t quite right. I know my body and I knew I needed help. I have been working with Dr. Larry Bell. I am excited to work with him. He’s a man of knowledge. He has really helped me with this.”

Bell is an Orillia, Ont.-based chiropractor who has worked extensively with the Nigerian track and field team as well as individual sprinters including 2004 Olympic 100 m silver medallist Francis Obikwelu of Portugal. Lopes-Schliep has made the 90-minute drive to Bell’s clinic a few times for treatment and reports all is now good.

Good health is something Lopes-Schliep doesn’t take for granted. She was born with a genetic condition called lipodystrophy that accounts for her large musculature. All the women on her mother’s side of the family have it. Diabetes also runs in the family. She has to take special care of her body.

Regular massage therapy is a must for world-class athletes, and most meets provide this. Lopes-Schliep said there was a two-hour wait for massage in Monaco, however, so she resorted to her own substitute — an ice bath.

“I will do it right here in my hotel room,” she says, laughing. “You fill up the bathtub with cold water and ice and sit back and enjoy. The first two minutes are the hardest. Once you get past that you’re good to go. If I haven’t done it in a while it kind of gets you. But I have been doing it regularly now.”

Next up for the Olympic bronze medallist is Stockholm’s DN Galan on Friday. A year ago meet organizers put her in the B section. She ran faster than the all the athletes in the A section — from Lane 1, no less. This time, her credentials will no doubt earn her a better lane assignment. Then she will meet up with the Canadian team at a training camp outside Cologne, Germany. Her coach Anthony McCleary will join her and work with her on perfecting her technique heading into Berlin.

“I still feel I need to fix some things, because at the end of the race in Monaco I felt I had more gas in the tank,” she says. “So definitely, I am excited about the worlds and to see what is going to happen. I thought I had a very good start tonight. I have got to work on the middle part of the race and the transition and see what happens.”

Filed Under: Priscilla Lopes-Schliep

Sultana Frizell – Canadian Record Holder in Hammer Throw

May 21, 2009 By admin

sultanafrizell

She throws. She scores. Sultana Frizell is a rising star on the hammer-throwing scene, recently setting a new Canadian record of 71.64m on April 18, 2009 in Walnut, Ca. The mark improves her own national record of 70.55 set in 2008.
Recently, Frizell placed third in a strong international field at the Grand Prix in Qatar, Doha with a throw of 69.86. Currently she is ranked ninth in the world, and is aiming for the World Athletics Championships in Berlin this summer.
Growing up in Perth, Ont., Frizell was also a figure skater, discus, javelin and shot put thrower before she decided to take up the hammer. In 2002, she was competing in the shot put, discus and javelin at a Legion Track Meet. Renowned Russian throws coach Anatoly Bondarchuk suggested that she try hammer throwing. She excelled at the event and soon earned her way to the University of Georgia’s track and field team.

Hammer throwing is now her event. “Pretty soon after I started hammer throwing, I knew it was the event for me… I loved it!” she laughs. “I think the hammer throw explains a little of my personality: controlled chaos!”
She wishes more people would share her enthusiasm. “The majority of people I meet not in the track world don’t know what hammer throw is. This is a shame because I think it is the best sport in track and field,” she says, adding with a laugh, “My personal opinion.”

Hammer throw is not a glamour event compared to figure skating. The women’s event made its debut at the Olympics in 2000, having only gained international sanctioning in 1998. The hammer throw is an athletic event where the object is to throw a heavy metal ball attached to a wire and handle. The name is derived from older competitions where an actual sledge hammer was thrown. Such competitions are still part of the Scottish Highland games. British Columbia is the only province where it is a high school sport.

Asked to describe the event, Frizell says, “The athlete spins quickly around in circles, pushing the hammer out in front. You have to know where it is in the spatial orbit, catch it and then push it just at the right moment into the triangular qualifying zone.”

At 23, she competed in the Beijing Olympics and threw 65.44m, placing 17th. Other career highlights include a seventh-place finish at the 2007 Pan American Games and a gold medal at the 2007 Canadian Track and Field Championships. She also won a bronze medal in the shot put at the 2005 national championships.

Frizell now lives and trains in Kamloops at the National Training Centre and is coached by Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk. He competed for the Soviet Union and was the 1972 Olympic gold medalist and world record holder in the hammer throw. He had coached 13 Olympians before he was hired by the Kamloops Track and Field club in 2005.

Article by: by Christine Blanchette

Filed Under: Sultana Frizell

Jared or Jarid? or Jarid or Jared?

May 15, 2009 By admin

by John Moe

Jared Connaughton passing to Pierre Browne in Beijing

They are two sprinters from opposite sides of the country with a lot in common. They both competed for the University of Texas at Arlington, they both hope to make the Canadian 4×100-metre relay team at this years’ World Athletics Championships in Berlin, and they happen to be the best of friends. Oh, and their names are Jared and Jarid.

Up until recently it was a slam dunk that Jared Connaughton and Jarid Vaughan would both compete in the 100 metres at this year’s Vancouver Sun Harry Jerome International Track Classic. However, like a bolt from the blue, a late invitation to run against triple Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Usain Bolt came for Connaughton, and he just couldn’t pass it up. Speaking on his cell phone while driving near the U.T.A. campus where he trains, he explained, “I just got confirmed for the Festival of Excellence meet in Toronto. The meet will be held on June 11 at the same track where the Canadian championships will be held later this summer.” The native of New Haven, P.E.I. had been looking forward to the Harry Jerome meet. “Running against Usain Bolt… it might not happen again. Any other season and I’d be at the Harry Jerome,” noted April’s Canadian Track and Field Athlete of the Month.

Career highlights for the 23-year-old give an observer plenty of reasons to get excited about Canada’s future in the 100m, 200m, and the sprint relay. In 2008 Connaughton ran a personal best time of 20.34 in the 200m at the National Championships at Windsor, Ont. That performance was also a championship record. At the 100m he has a p.b. of 10.15, run at an NCAA Southlands Conference meet at U.T.A. At last summer’s Olympic Games, he turned heads with a performance of 20.45 in the quarter-final and went on to place seventh in the semi. His 4×100-m relay team went all the way to the final, placing sixth in 38.66.

Jarid Vaughan now sprinting at UT Arlington

The other half of this Canadian dynamic duo, Langley native Jarid Vaughan, has made an impressive start to the 2009 track and field season. On April 11, the U.T.A. junior posted the fastest collegiate 200m in America so far this year, a 20.47 performance at the John Jacobs Invitational in Norman, Okla. Vaughan’s mark was a personal best and the fourth-fastest time in school history. The mark also easily qualified him for the NCAA Regionals. The 24-year-old son of Debbie and Bernie Vaughan ran an impressive 10.23 at the Texas Relays in the 100 meters, also good for the fourth-fastest time in the U.S. and the fourth-fastest all-time at U.T.A.

Even with those blistering times posted by Jarid this year, it’s likely the kinesiology major still has a surprise or two in store. Consider his high school career at R.E. Mountain Secondary in Langley: while posting p.b.s of 10.84, 21.66, and 47.7 (400m), Jarid also captured the Provincial Championship in the high jump with a leap of 2.05 metres. This is something like Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo switching to right wing next season and scoring 40 goals. It was Canadian high school 100-m record holder Peter Ogilvie who coached Jarid in 2004 and convinced him to focus on his sprinting.

With their rapid progressions over the past three years, the future does indeed seem very bright for Jarid and Jared. Or is that Jared and Jarid?

Filed Under: Athlete Profiles

Ruky Abdulai – Interview

May 3, 2009 By admin

ruky1

Do you have a memorable competition from the Harry Jerome?

Ruky: My most memorable competition from Harry Jerome was the 2008 Harry Jerome track meet. It is memorable not only for winning the long jump but for the first time ever in my track and field competition that I realize I might be wearing the Canadian colours in Beijing. That was very special to me. And, it was also memorable because it proved to me that everything I had been doing was the right choice.

It must have been a real thrill competing in the Olympics in Beijing. What was it like?

Ruky: It was definitely a great experience and competing against the world best jumpers. The energy around the Olympic Village was great. It was very nice to see people from around the world for the same purpose. But mostly I’m a part of history.

How is your training and competition schedule different this year from last year?

Ruky: My schedule hasn’t changed much, but there are few things that we are working on to improve my take off from the board. I’m also training a bit more than last year.

Who were your track idols growing up and why?

Ruky: My Track idols while growing up were Marion Jones and Michael Jonson. They were my idol because every time I decided to quit track , they motivate me as I watch them run and to stay strong and believe that I can do it

As a fan, who are your favourite track and field athletes to watch right now?

Ruky: I will say Russian long jumper Tayana Lebedeva and Canadian 100m hurdler Priscilla Lopez-Schliep.

In the major professional sports salaries are well-known, but its not so clear in track and field. Can you give us a sense of how much money you or others make?

Ruky: I cannot give a specific amount because I just started competing professionally since June 2008. As for others, I’m sure they are making about $10.000 – $40.000 depending on the athletes level of performance. I could say that I’m not making up to that amount yet because I’m new to competing as a professional athlete.

How did you celebrate after the Olympics were over?

Ruky: I did not celebrate after the Olympics. Although I did visit my family in Ghana after the games and we had a good time together.

Could you give a general training tip or inspirational quote that we will feature on the site?

Ruky: Great people were not born great. They became great by making a decision to pursue their dream in life and by refusing to give up. The struggle we must all face on the road to our dreams is what makes us great. Ordinary people can become extraordinary if they dedicate their lives to the pursuit of their dreams.

Interview by Allan Klassen

Filed Under: Athlete Profiles, Ruky Abdulai

Gary Reed – Interview

April 29, 2009 By admin

Gary Reed

Since making the 800-metre final in the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, Gary Reed has proven himself as one of the world’s best half-milers. His inspiring performance at the 2007 World Championships, in which he led nearly the entire race, won him a silver medal. He finished fourth in the Beijing Olympic Games, narrowly missing the podium. The 27-year-old Kamloops native holds the Canadian record at 1:43.68, a mark he set in Monaco last year.

How is your training and racing schedule different this year from last year?

I will start racing a few weeks earlier this year. I hope to improve my speed as well.

Who were your track idols growing up and why?

I was a big Wilson Kipketer fan growing up. He was so dominant and so smooth; it was unreal to watch as a kid.

As a fan, who are your favourite track and field athletes to watch right now?

I like watching the young athletes break through. Any athlete that believes in themselves is a treat to watch.

In the major professional sports, salaries are well known, but in track and field it’s not so clear. Can you give us a sense of how much you or other athletes make?

I think it’s not so clear because from event to event it’s very different. A thrower will not typically earn as much as a 100-metre runner, and earnings are largely performance-based and fluctuate largely from year to year.

How did you celebrate after the Olympics were over?

I spent some time with my family and my girlfriend’s family in Kamloops. I also had a nice time in Vegas and Hawaii later in the month.

Filed Under: Athlete Profiles, Gary Reed

Athlete Profile of the Week – Dylan Armstrong

February 2, 2009 By admin

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Dylan Armstrong (born 15 January 1981) is a Canadian shot putter. He was born and raised in Kamloops.

His personal best, and the Canadian record, is 21.04 meters. This was achieved at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he finished fourth, finishing out of a medal by a single centimetre. He is a three-time Canadian national champion in the shot put. Armstrong currently trains with coach Anatoli Bondarchuk in his home town of Kamloops, British Columbia.

Prior to focusing on the shot put in 2004, Armstrong competed in the hammer throw. As a junior, he won a gold medal at the 1999 Pan American Junior Games and a silver medal at the 2000 World Junior Championships. He continues to hold the North American high school and junior records in the hammer throw. His personal best is 71.51 meters, achieved in April 2003 in Walnut.

Filed Under: Athlete Profiles, Dylan Armstrong