News

Canada will send a team of about 30 athletes to the track and field events at the Beijing Olympics and head coach Les Gramantik predicts six to seven finalists and two medals.

Canada was shut out in athletics in the past two Olympics, but a set of performance standards that left some stars on the outside looking in resulted in 20 athletes qualifying directly for the team, while five are eligible in a new category called “rising star,” two – including two-time hurdles champion Perdita Felicien – were granted extensions past the qualifying deadline for medical reasons and a handful of near-misses were the subject of appeals at meetings of team officials last night after the end of the national trials.

But the 2008 trials represented a turnover and a breakthrough in some ways. The Olympic team will include four athletes in the throwing events, which used to be dominated by a drug-fuelled Eastern bloc, and Canada's first female Olympic thrower in 16 years.

“It's neat to see Dylan Armstrong, Sultana Frizell, Scott Russell and myself out there together,” said Jim Steacy, a hammer thrower from Lethbridge, Alta. “It's kind of like we're the new guard.

“It's exciting to be part of that, with us being young.”

Frizell, of Perth, Ont., is the Canadian women's shot-put champion and will be the first Canadian female thrower at the Games since Georgette Reed in 1992. Armstrong, of Kamloops, is a 27-year-old shot putter who trains with sport scientist and 1972 Olympic champion Anatoly Bondarchuk. Russell is a javelin thrower from Windsor, Ont..

One thing that likely has made Canadians more competitive in the throwing circles is the advance of doping control. It had brought world performances and qualifying standards back to the realm of human performance.

“I do compete versus one guy who I know had been suspended in the past and I almost feel I'm still getting cheated because he's allowed in. But it's encouraging to know we can compete now,” said Steacy, who won the hammer at 78.52 metres. “Up to a few years ago, the qualifying standard [based on the top performances in the world] was seven metres beyond the Canadian record and it was impossible to compete in an Olympics unless our country hosted it.”

“There are better years to come,” said Armstrong, who won the shot put at 19.88 metres, but has already thrown past 20 metres this season. “We're young, the coaching is better and Dr. Bondarchuk is working in Kamloops. Watch us for 2012.

“The standards used to be impossible. Now, they're reasonable. If you've got a kid with talent, it's possible for him to get to the world level.”

There will be about 30 on the Olympic team when it is announced Monday – 20 having answered the performance standards, five top-performing youngsters in the rising star category, two medical extensions to make standards, including sore-footed hurdler Perdita Felicien, and a handful of appealed cases citing everything from recent surgery to hampering winds.

Gramantik predicted that six or seven of the Canadians will make their respective finals and two will bring home medals. Canada was shut out of Olympic medals in 2004 and 2000, unable to convert world championship hardware.

“Culturally, the Olympics is the most important for Canadians,” Gramantik said. “We don't care about the world championships in between, but the Olympics is important.”

He said not all appeals were deserving. “Even for the medical, we have to know not only that the athlete will be healthy for the Games, but also be fit. We've had passengers in the past.”

Among those joining the team Sunday are world championship silver medalist Gary Reed of Kamloops,winning the men's 800 in 1 minute 45.61 seconds, and Achraf Tadili of Montreal, who along with Reed needed only to finish in the top four, was second in 1:46.25 and also will go to Beijing.

Also earning Olympic spots on closing day are: Armstrong; Nicole Forrester of Aurora, Ont., who cleared 1.95 metres to win the high jump, and Jared Connaughton of Charlottetown and Brian Barnett of Edmonton, who finished 1-2 in the men's 200 metres.

Other winners included Tabia Charles of Pickering, Ont., who won the triple jump with a leap of 13.92 metres. Charles had already qualified for Beijing in the long jump on Saturday.

Adam Kunkel, the Pan American Games gold medalist in the men's 400 hurdles, won in 50.11, but missed the standard of 49.50. Kunkel, from Paisley, Ont., is appealing for an extension based on his late start to the season after tearing a hamstring in the world championship final in Osaka, Japan.