Perdita looks to the past for some inspiration

Hurdles is an event where you never want to look back, but you can't blame Perdita Felicien for doing just that as she prepares for the world championships in Korea.

This season has been a rough one. She hasn't been a contender in the few starts she's had in the top races in Europe and then had to pull out of some pre-worlds events recently because of a hamstring strain.

"It's not the typical way of going to world championships with no races since the middle of July," said Felicien before getting on her flight to Daegu this week. "But talking to (coach) Gary (Winckler) he said 'I'm not worried about you. I know your competition pedigree. You know what to do when the gun goes off.' Definitely going to have to rely on instincts and competitive instincts."

She's been in this spot before. Four years ago, in fact, she was under the radar leading up to the world championships in Osaka, Japan, but pulled a silver medal out of the fire. Felicien, who will turn 31 in Korea, isn't counting herself out.

"I have to obviously say I think it's possible because why get on the plane if you don't think it's possible," said the Pickering native. "It's true unlike any event there really aren't favourites in the hurdles, we know that. It's a race where you can be No. 1 and have the ranking, who cares. It's what you can do on that day and obviously anything can happen."

No one need remind Felicien of that. The Athens 2004 disaster could be Exhibit A. She's lived it all in her career since bursting her surprise gold medal win at the 2003 worlds in Paris.

"I think this is like my sixth world champs," said Felicien. "That's a lot. That's a lot of stuff going on. I look back at every one, all the ones I've medaled at, all the ones I finaled at, all the ones I bombed at, and it's been a gambit.

"It's been ups and down, it's been fun. I always use the running joke that the world championships have been better to me than the Olympics. So again I'm going into a world championship and having the same expectation it's going to be good to me again."

She expects to look at the diaries she's kept over the years.

"You look back at what you've done and just suck whatever energy that you can out of it," she said. "I keep a lot of diaries, I do a lot of journaling and it's always fun to come back and read what I wrote the night before my final and tap into those things and get into that same mentality."

 

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[anonymous]

AWE YEAH. GO P!!!!