Durham Duel: Rivalry Heats Up For Lopes-Schliep and Felicien

The Durham Duel. Whitby’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep vs. Pickering’s Perdita Felicien.

 It’s got the potential to be the best rivalry in Canadian track and field since the Donovan Bailey/Bruny Surin days and, in some ways, it really gets its start tomorrow night at the Festival of Excellence at Varsity Stadium.

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The beginnings of a rivalry at the 2004 national championships.

Make no doubt about it, it’s the biggest race for the two hurdlers since Lopes-Schliep staked her claim as Canada’s No. 1 in the event with a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Until then, she had always been in Felicien’s shadow. But no more. She currently has the world leading time in the women’s 100 metre hurdles of 12.52 seconds. Only 3/100ths of a second separated the duo last weekend at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., with Lopes Schliep finishing third, one spot ahead of Felicien and 2/100ths behind winner world champion Michelle Perry of the U.S..

That’s the thing, either Canadian is going to have to be at her absolute best to win against a strong field that includes Americans Damu Cherry, who equaled Perry's winning time in Eugene but had to settle for second, and Virgina Powell.

Unless memory fails (and it would not be the first time), Canada has not had two competitors in the same event make the podium at the world or Olympic level since Bailey and Surin. That rivalry was very acrimonious at times, especially when they were arguing over who’d run the anchor in the relay leading to the 2000 Sydney Games.

Lopes-Schliep vs. Felicien doesn’t seem to nearly match the big-ego sprinters for rancor, but one does get the sense there’s an edge to it. They seemed pretty buddy-buddy around the time of the 2004 Athens Games, but not so much now.

For her part, Lopes-Schliep demurred this week when asked if they were friends.

“I mean we see each other on the track, it’s cordial and stuff,” said Lopes-Schliep. “I mean we’re competitors and everyone’s friendly. … I don’t know. … We see each other and it’s ‘Hi.’ That’s the way it is with most athletes. We all wish each other the best.”

Both agree the rivalry is good for Canadian track and field.

“I think any talk of a rivalry is good,” said Felicien. “From where I’m standing, I think it’s good. It keeps everyone on their toes. It keeps everybody fresh. I would love to have an Olympic medal. It’s the one major medal that has eluded me.

“But truly at the end of the day at this point of my career, I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. That’s the one thing that I want to get. But I can’t gauge what I want to do off of what anybody else has done. I think there’s enough to go around for everybody.”

Still, it might be a good thing they don’t have to run a relay together.

 

 

Pickering Sprinter Anson Henry: Perchance To Dream ….

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Anson Henry says look to the stars and numbers will come.

Pickering sprinter Anson Henry gets the chance on Thursday to line up against Jamaican star Usain Bolt at the Festival of Excellence. Not only does he say he’s not intimidated, but he’s got Bolt-like aspirations of his own.

“Any sprinter who believes in themselves will just look at Usain as the guy who has the stars aligned for him right now,” said Henry. “He’s in a position they believe they can be in themselves.

“As far as him being intimidating, to some sprinters maybe, but to other sprinters who really believe that they can run that fast, they’re just looking at him as someone who has it together right now.”

Pretty heady stuff for a 30-year-old who has yet to crack the 10-second barrier (his personal best is 10.02), but sprinting can really be a mental game and the graduate of Dunbarton High School definitely believes in his own potential.

“His performance at the Olympics was as close to perfect as you can get,” said Henry. “The way I look at it is if I was to get my stuff together and the stars aligned for me, I could be running just as fast. He was able to put it together and he was very impressive. There’s no way around that.”

While there’s a lot of speculation on just how fast Bolt will go, Henry doesn’t believe there’s not been enough appreciation about how fast he’s already gone.

“The way that he did it, people think that 9.6 is like nothing,” said Henry, knocked out in the second round of the 100 metres in Beijing. “But running 9.6 is really no joke because really breaking 10 seconds you’re flying. Really, if you can run 10.1, you’re flying. If you’re running 9.6, that’s almost unheard of.

“If he never gets back to 9.6 again in his career, I wouldn’t even necessarily be surprised by that. Because it’s blistering fast. Going faster than that will be very hard. He could still have a very successful career being able to run 9.8 and maybe 9.7s. You never know if he’s ever going to be in that shape again. Only time will tell.”

Henry said people should discard their expectations and just enjoy the show.

“People should just let him run. It’s going to impressive regardless. If he runs 9.5, then people are going to be like ‘Hey, when are you going to run 9.4?’”

The Man Who’s Bringing Usain Bolt To Toronto

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN CARSON

John Carson gets credit for bringing Usain Bolt to Toronto.

A wind turbine. More than 10,000 pounds of books. And a grand piano for the church.

 These are the kinds of things that probably swung the deal that’s bringing Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt to Toronto to run Thursday in the Festival of Excellence at Varsity Stadium.

Bolt is coming here because of the relationship between John Carson, a massage therapist who is director of the Classic Mile in Cambridge, Ont., and Ricky Simms, one of Bolt’s agents.

Carson developed a rapport with Simms through bringing in some of his runners to the Classic Mile, including Laban Rotich of Kenya. What Simms saw in Carson was not just a guy who was dedicated to his event and the sport, but someone who was also willing to lead a group of 22 high school students in raising $40,000 to hire a container and visit Rotich’s home village of Kokwet and build a wind turbine and bring medical and other supplies.

“I think Ricky saw what we were doing at the village level and the impact it was having and our relationship is based as much on that as anything,” said Carson.

So when Carson broached the topic of bringing Bolt to Toronto after he became the hottest sports commodity on the planet in Beijing, Simms was willing to listen. He was not a Johnny Carson Come Lately.

Sure, Bolt is getting a reported $250,000 appearance fee – but he could go anywhere these days and get that.

Once Carson got a commitment from Simms that Bolt would indeed come, he linked up with the University of Toronto, which had the resources to bring this event off and, like Carson, also the strong desire to breathe some life into track and field in these parts.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN CARSON

Hard work in Kenya helped Carson land a track superstar.

One of principals putting together the field for the event is Carson’s old track nemesis, middle distance runner Dave Reid, who always got the better of him. Reid has been working with U of T track boss Carl Georgevski in putting together a stellar field that includes Olympic champions LaShawn Merritt (400 metres) and Bryan Clay (decathlon).

“We’re building it so it’s not just the Usain Bolt show,” said Carson. “This year, it may be a coming out party for track and field and it certainly helps to have the hottest ticket in sport. But we’re showing it’s much more than a 100-metre exhibition race.”

The overall objective is a playground to podium approach and to that end the Festival of Excellence has targeted community groups, schools and clubs to get involved through the Run Like Lightning program. They are running youth events earlier on Thursday and exposing as many kids as possible to the meet and to Bolt.

They are looking to the excitement the meet will bring and its live coverage on TSN to create more awareness.

“Until you’re moved emotionally, it doesn’t have the same effect on you,” said Carson. “The goal is to move people emotionally and out of that have a call to action. The goal or reason for doing something like this is it brings energy to the sport.”

A Bolt of energy, you might say. It shapes up to be an exciting week.

Sprinter Bernard Williams is a Stand-up (Comedy) Kinda Guy

American sprinter Bernard Williams wouldn’t mind doing some moonlighting when he comes to Toronto next week for the Festival of Excellence.

It turns out that Williams has done some work as a standup comic and would like to find a place to try out his act the night before next Thursday’s 100-metre race featuring Jamaican star Usain Bolt.

“If you know somebody up there, see if you can hook them up with my agent so I can do a show up there before the race,” said Williams over the phone.

Williams routine includes him riffing on learning that many of his competitors cheated using steriods through the Balco scandal while he himself had a positive test for marijuana.

“At that point, it’s like ‘Wow, you mean to tell me the whole time I’ve been competing against these guys day and night they’ve been passing drug tests all day, but then I fail one for marijuana,” said Williams.

“The only thing it enhanced was my appetite.”

Bada-boom.

Actually Williams doesn’t like talking about his routine too much, believing the jokes only translate well when he’s on stage. But he reckons he could come up with some material on the incredible Bolt, whom he’s hung out with before and genuinely likes.

“If Bolt is actually in the comedy club, then we have a whole different ambiance,” said Williams. “Bolt’s a funny cat. He’s naturally funny.”

In fact, Williams claims that Bolt got the inspiration for his arrow pose from Williams’ showboating at the 2000 Sydney Olympics when he was part of the victorious American relay team (See above picture. That’s Williams in front.)

 

Willaims said it’s hard to balance standup comedy with track and field, because one requires a relaxed mode while the other is a serious business.

“I haven’t been doing comedy much lately because I’ve been trying to stay focused on this track and field, trying to stay in my lane, you know what I mean,” he said.

“Nothing’s too funny when you’re getting your butt whipped.”

Tickets for the Festival of Excellence are available at ticketbreak.com.