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May 30, 2007

Muir Eager To Race At Swangard After 2006 Setback

When the athletes take to the starting blocks at the 24th annual Vancouver Sun Harry Jerome International Track Classic there is no doubt the most eager of them all will be Edmonton-based sprinter Carline Muir.

A year ago Muir was enjoying an outstanding early outdoor season with plans to run a personal best and world junior qualifying standard in the 400 metres at the 2006 Jerome meet at Burnaby's Swangard Stadium. But the affable teen never even made it out of Alberta after severe pains and nausea sent her to hospital. Instead of battling against Chinese rivals in the Jerome meet Pacific World Cup Muir spent the day of the meet recovering from an appendectomy.

"I was so looking forward to that meet, I had all these plans," recalls 19-year-old Muir, who will run the 4x400-metre relay for Team Canada at the 2007 Jerome meet. "Then, a couple of days before I was to come out I started to not feel well. I had these terrible pains and started to feel very sick. I went to the hospital and eventually they told me I had appendicitis. At that point not only was I disappointed I couldn't run at the Jerome meet but it seemed to put into doubt the rest of my season."

Muir recovered in time to win the one-lap sprint at the Canadian junior championships and to finish second at the Canadian senior nationals, where her 53.08 effort qualified her for the world junior championships in Beijing. Muir was a semi-finalist there and has since spent a long winter looking ahead to the 2007 season instead of pondering what might have been in 2006.

Before the appendectomy she was ranked as high as No.3 on the world junior list for 400 metres. Had the surgery not curtailed her training Muir is certain she would have recorded a personal best and perhaps made the medal podium in Beijing.

"Looking back, if it had to happen it was probably better that it happened last year because this year is big for qualifying for Pan-Ams, world championships and even ahead to the 2008 Olympics," explains Muir. "This is a year where I want, and need, to run faster than I have before. It was difficult last year because it was my last chance for the world juniors and I wanted to do well. If guess after what happened I'd call it a pretty okay season. But I have lots of things to look ahead to this year."

Muir recently recorded a personal best 52.03 at the La Loma meet in Mexico and will spend several days prior to the Jerome meet running in Provo, Utah, where she hopes she will finally dip under the 52-second mark.

"I am so ready to do it, it could come any day now," she declares. "Right now I'm running all 52-low. It's been going great so far. I know I'm only 19 and people say I have to be patient but I'm very impatient, I want to have that time now. I'm hungry for everything to come quickly."

Athletics Canada has listed 51.00 seconds as the women's A standard for the August world track and field championships in Osaka, Japan. The B-Plus standard of 51.91 appears within Muir's immediate grasp although she also has an opportunity to make Canada's world team under the Athletics Canada Rising Star guidelines.

The International Association of Athletics Federations has sanctioned the Jerome meet as an official relay qualifying meet for the world championships in Osaka. Recently Muir joined with Esther Akinsulie, Adrienne Power and Lauren Siebel to finish sixth in the 4x400 (3:35.26) at the Penn Relays and all four are named to Canada's team for the Jerome meet. Montreal's Martine Cloutier-LeBlanc has also been added to the relay team pool for June 8.

The Canadian women's 4x400 foursome needs to run an A-Standard of 3:29.00 (the B Standard is 3:29.90) to qualify for the world championships and/or Pan-American Games. The Canadian record remains a formidable 3:21.21 set by Charmaine Crooks, Jillian Richardson, Molly Killingbeck and Marita Payne en route to earning the silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

"We have a really good chance of getting standard for both the Pan-American Games and the world championships," says Muir. "It would be good if we could get it before the guys. In the past maybe they've had the better results but so far this season I think we've done better. If the weather cooperates we can do it."

The 24th annual Vancouver Sun Harry Jerome International Track Classic goes Friday June 8, 6:45pm, at Burnaby's Swangard Stadium Tickets available at Ticketmaster.

For meet media inquiries contact:
Diane Clement
dclement00@hotmail.com or (604) 261-6220

For athlete information contact:
Marek Jedrezejek
marekj@interchange.ubc.ca or (604) 822-6259

or

Doug Clement
dclement00@hotmail.com

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