An African influence is reaping rewards for Canada’s distance running star of the winter Emilie Mondor.

The 22-year-old, who last year placed 13th in the short course race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne and also set a national 5000m record at the IAAF World Championships in Paris, has made a big impact on the country this year.

The Quebec-born athlete finished fourth in the IAAF permit race in Newcastle, England on 3 January, 19 seconds adrift of Ethiopia’s World 5000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba and a week later defeated three-time World Half-marathon silver medallist Susan Chepkemei in Belfast, also an IAAF permit race, prompting the belief the Canadian has stepped up to another level.

African values

Several factors have contributed to Mondor’s outstanding start to the year, and one, undoubtedly, is the major African influence in her life.

“I don’t really support the North American way of life,” said Mondor. “My fiancé is the Ethiopian distance runner Araya Haregot and our values are similar. I’m very focused and very mature like Araya.”

The pair met last year at the Manchester Road Race in Connecticut and became engaged on New Year’s Day. But because the pair still live apart - Mondor in British Columbia, Canada and Haregot (a 2:19 marathoner) in Washington, USA - the Canadian rarely trains with the Africans and carries out much of her running on her own.

A good all-rounder

Born in the small town of Mascouche in the French-Canadian province of Quebec, Mondor was always passionate about sport and was a talented volleyball player, footballer and a provincial mountain-bike champion.

Yet it was distance running which offered the greatest thrill.

“I’m probably a person who likes to work hard and I’m very motivated to do well in whatever I do,” adds Mondor, whose mother is a former professional singer and younger sister a Canadian volleyball international. “In athletics it all depends on how you do and not how your team-mates do.”

Mondor first made her mark in 1997 when winning the national junior cross country title and the following year placed tenth in the junior race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

Milder climes and a new coach

But her career stalled in Quebec and a move to the milder climate of British Columbia in 2001 to link up with her current coach, Mike Lonergan, and to study biological sciences helped bring about an improvement in her running.

She explained: “I was getting a lot of injuries in 1999 and because of the weather I was training a lot indoors. This didn’t help my injuries, so I decided to move. BC is the only place in Canada which doesn’t snow in the winter, it has its own micro-climate.”

The move has undoubtedly contributed to her rapid improvement in form, which first manifested itself last year at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and then the IAAF World Championships, when she ran a national 5000m record of 14:59.68 and also dipped under Canada’s Olympic qualifying standard of 15:00 for the distance.

“Setting 15:00 is a lot harder than for many other countries, a crazy standard. When I set the national record in the heats of the World Championships I couldn’t believe I’d done it and broken Lynn Williams record. Lynn (the 1984 Olympic 3000m bronze medallist) was a real idol of mine.”

Yet Mondor does not believe in racking up huge mileage (never more than 110km a week) and both walking and rest are a crucial part of her training regime.

She added: “I try to listen to my body and if I’m tired I don’t run as hard and I adjust my training. I’ve not been injured in three years. I also make sure I walk for at least an hour a day, ideally on soft ground. I enjoy it totally. It is my think-time, where I think about life and my running.”

She has also excelled on all surfaces, track, country and road and is split on which is her favourite surface.

“Cross country and road are not as stressful as the track,” she explained. “But I do enjoy the competition of the track, when you are fit, the track is fun.”

Mondor is shortly expected to return to Canada after a stint on the European cross country circuit and will return for March’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Brussels. She is undecided about whether to tackle the short or the long course event but on the evidence of her sparkling start to 2004 a place in the top ten in either race is a distinct possibility.