When the men's 100-metre sprint ended at the world athletics championships in Edmonton, there were no Canadians to be found. Donovan Bailey retired. Bruny Surin was in a wheelchair.
But if Canadian track officials were wondering when the next generation would present itself, it came charging full-tilt down the straightaway on Monday at the Canada Summer Games in London, Ont.
Nathan Taylor, 18, of Courtenay, B.C., ran the fastest race of his life -- a Games record 10.38 seconds for the 100 metres.
He trimmed 0.01 seconds from the mark set by former national team member Troy Dos Santos four years ago in Brandon.
Today, the national juvenile and junior champion will go for a second Canada Games gold medal, competing in the 200 metres at TD Waterhouse Stadium.
More important than anything for Canadian sprinting, Taylor is fresh. So fresh that he doesn't even remember the national trauma of Ben Johnson's doping in Seoul. He was five years old when that happened. So fresh that, if you ask him whom he looks up to in Canadian sprinting, he consigns Bailey and Surin to the history books and cites Nicolas Macrozonaris of Montreal, a hoary 20-year-old.
"He'd be my perfect example," Taylor said. "He only took up track seriously a few years ago, but he's proving you can get there if you're willing to work hard."
Taylor, likewise, has been training in track for only three years.
"I took it up as summer training, a couple of months a year, to stay in shape for hockey," he said. "Up until this year, I was playing Junior A for the Powell River Kings in the B.C. junior league. I was a winger and a bit of a scorer.
"But I decided after I won the Canadian juvenile title, there was a better future in track than in hockey."
That is to say Taylor recognized he had a better shot at a university scholarship with spikes than a stick. In the fall, he will start at the University of Michigan, studying general sciences. He has his track scholarship and likes the fact that one of coach Ron Warhurst's assistants on the varsity team is a Canadian, miler Kevin Sullivan of Brantford, Ont.
"But the main reason I chose Michigan was its academic programs," Taylor said. "One day when the track's over, a degree from a reputable school will help a lot."
Getting his race time down is a priority this season. Taylor had a personal best of 10.73 seconds for the 100 metres at the start of the season, with lots of room for improvement. He beat his target time of 10.5 with 10.49 in the preliminary rounds at the Canada Games, easing off at the end.
"I knew there was more there for the final," he said. "The important thing was not to get psyched out at the start line.
"That's why I like a runner like [U.S. world record holder]Maurice Greene. He never gets psyched out and he works hard in every race."
Taylor said his improvement was a matter of focusing on the Canada Games as a year-long goal, consistent training under coach Sharon de Goede at the Comox Valley Athletics club, and enough rest that he didn't suffer burnout.
"Confidence grew, too," he said. "I saw the improvement, knew I could run the times I set for myself if I waited for it to come. I was patient enough to look at the big picture."
After the 200 metres and the interprovincial relay races on Friday, Taylor said, he will probably shut down his competitive season. He could probably be sent to the Pan American junior championships in Argentina by Athletics Canada, but the October date would conflict with his start at Michigan.
He hasn't looked as far ahead as next summer's national team for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, though he knows Canada is desperate for new legs.
"Watching the world championships this year, I was a little disappointed in how Canadian sprinters fared," he said. "Maybe we should have had younger guys out there, like Pierre Browne. It was sad, like Sydney." He was happy to hear that the World Anti-Doping Agency will be setting up shop on Canadian soil. "Drugs is the big knock on track and field right now," he said. "I hope it's a cleaner, fairer playing field I'm coming into."