After two years of injury induced mediocrity Perdita Felicien, the 2003 World 100m Hurdles champion is finally healthy and showed her heels to a strong field in winning her 6th straight Canadian Championship in Ottawa.

The championships were held at the Terry Fox Athletics Facility in Mooney’s Bay, Ottawa August 4th - 6th.

With a negligible tail wind of 0.7 m/s Felicien recorded her fastest time of the year defeating Priscilla Lopes and Angela Whyte. The 25 year old Champaign, Illinois resident stopped the clock in 12.64 seconds ahead of Whyte (12.69) and Lopes (12.78 seconds).

The sweetest title of all

“It’s six (Canadian) titles and honestly it’s probably the sweetest title I have won,” said Felicien afterwards. “I feel I am on track to be where I want to be. I am pleased more with the win today than the time. The time is the fastest I have run all year so, of course, I am pleased with it, but I want to be in the 12.4 - 12.5 seconds range consistently but the fact that I am healthy now is a huge load off my chest.”

“I am going to have bigger fish to fry in Europe. These girls are in the 12.4 - 12.5 range and they have been a lot more consistent than I have been. I feel like I am in May and it’s August and I have to just try and get into the fray.”

Christopher looking forward to European tour

Tyler Christopher easily won the 400m in a time of 45.68 seconds and claims he will head back to Europe in two weeks prepared to run consistently under 45 seconds. That form has so far deserted him. A year ago he set the Canadian record of 44.44 seconds to claim the bronze medal at the IAAF World Championships.

“The past few years I have found the last couple of months are the strongest for me,” said Christopher, 22, “so I am looking for mid 44's in Europe.”

“There was a World Championships last year, I had the motivation to make myself known, I also had selected races for specific performances. This year I am doing it for a job. I am running a lot more and training a lot harder. It’s an off year, we have nothing to go for. That is basically the difference.”

Two medals for Kunkel

Christopher’s training partner Adam Kunkel who lowered the Canadian 400m Hurdles record to 48.86 seconds earlier this season recorded a personal best for the silver medal. His time was 46.44 seconds. The 25-year-old went on to add the gold in his specialty (49.93 seconds).

Commonwealth 1500m silver medalist Nathan Brannen won his first Canadian Championship gold medal with an effortless victory over a field that was missing Kevin Sullivan. The latter who ran 3:32.65 in the Rome Golden Gala this summer - his fastest time in six years - opted to run the 800m honing his speed for the remaining summer meetings.

Brannen followed the front runners for 1200m then unleashed his finishing kick to cover his final 300 metres in a shade over 41 seconds. His winning time was 3:41.06.

“I have been training pretty hard since I came back from Europe and we just tried to train right through this and focus on the IAAF World Cup,” a happy winner said adding, “It doesn’t feel the same winning without Kevin in the race.”

Sullivan working on speed

Sullivan, meanwhile, struggled to qualify for the men’s 800m final a race eventually won by Commonwealth Games silver medalist Achraf Tadili in 1:48.79. It was only after Canadian record holder Gary Reed scratched - a precautionary measure after he felt a slight pull in his left calf - that Sullivan was moved up into the ‘A’ final. While Tadili easily dominated the event Sullivan snatched a surprise bronze medal when the field moved wide in the home stretch giving him space on the inside.

The women’s 1500m provided more excitement as Carmen Douma-Hussar led at the bell before Malindi Elmore attacked on the final bend. Douma-Hussar was not to be denied, however and sprinted past her rival in the home stretch to win in a time of 4:12.82. Elmore’s form deserted her and she was overtaken by Hilary Stellingwerf who snatched the silver medal (4:13.03 to 4:13.15).

“I never really go into a race with fast rules on how I am going to run it because you never know what is going to happen,” said Douma-Hussar, the 2004 IAAF World Indoor 1500m silver medalist,“ and so I just wanted to see how the race progressed. It kind of went how I expected it to. I am glad I crossed the line first.”

Fast junior athlete heading towards Beijing

The championships ended on a highly positive note when 19-year-old Brian Barnett easily won the men’s 200m in a personal best time of 20.70 seconds. Although he lives in Edmonton he doesn’t train with Tyler Christopher. And he has never heard of Atlee Mahorn, the man who holds the Canadian record of 20.17 seconds set fifteen years ago when he won the 1991 World Championships bronze medal.

Of his performance in the final Barnett, who is now a full time athlete, admitted he had accomplished what he’d set out to do in preparation for the upcoming World Junior Championships in Beijing.

“That was the goal because yesterday I ran a pretty fast heat (20.76 seconds),” he explained. “We did two fast races because at the world juniors we will do the same thing.”

Paul Gains for the IAAF