Usain Bolt kisses the track in Beijing upon which he set two individual sprint World records (100m and 200m) and one team (4x100m) (© Getty Images)
Toronto, CanadaUsain Bolt’s appearance at Thursday’s Festival of Excellence (12) in Toronto is being heralded as the return of world class athletics to Canada’s largest city - “Track is Back” runs the slogan. True enough, one has to look back to 1965 when Olympic 800m silver medalist Bill Crothers raced Peter Snell for comparable hype surrounding an outdoor athletics meeting.
Someone within the organising committee let slip that Bolt was receiving an appearance fee of $250,000 which has not been confirmed although meet director Carl Georgevski, a three time Canadian Olympic team coach, says this is the affable Jamaican’s only North American appearance.
According to Ricky Simms, Bolt’s agent, this is one stop en route to the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Berlin, Germany (15 to 23 Aug) the others being Ostrava, Lausanne, Paris and London. In response to the talk of a possible World record Simms says “Usain runs to win - he doesn’t set time targets.” He also cautions that you can’t believe everything you read in the newspapers.
The Toronto Star in its Wednesday edition announced that Bolt who covers 100m in 41 strides is being paid $6000 per stride. To be fair the papers have been producing much material for readers’ consumption. An eight page pull out section in the Toronto Sun confirms Georgevski’s opinion that Bolt is full value, at least in the promotional sense.
“Track and field has never had so much encouraging, great publicity in years and years,” Georveski declares. “It’s the first time in more than two decades I can recall we’ve had consistent good stories…”
Georgevski says the refurbished Varsity Stadium at the University of Toronto hosted 3000 high school athletes for the Ontario provincial championships last weekend and the talk was of Bolt and the meet.
Clay, Merritt, Crawford, Shaheen…
“There’s a buzz among high school athletes,” he continues, “not only having Usain Bolt but the best athlete in the world, Bryan Clay (in a special triathlon multi event competition). Then there’s (Olympic 400m champion) LaShawn Merritt and Shawn Crawford. In short, this entire event has brought nothing but great profile and awareness of our sport to the entire community.”
Bolt faces Americans Bernard Williams and 2004 Olympic 200m champion Shawn Crawford in the featured 100m.
Among the other headliners is World 3000m steeplechase record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar, who is in the midst of a comeback following knee surgery. He says he is encouraged by his results this year. On Sunday he chased World 1500m/5000m champion Bernard Lagat home in the Pre Classic 3000m. Last month he also recorded a time of 7:32.46. He runs the 5000m in Toronto.
“This is my first time in Canada,” the jovial ex-Kenyan says, “I would be happy if I can go under 13 minutes.”
“I have been at 100% for a while but I didn’t have the confidence. When you don’t have confidence you cannot run well especially on the last lap.”
Shaheen’s newfound confidence has posed problems for the organisers. They must find a couple of pacemakers who can take the former Stephen Cherono through at the desired pace. The Canadian all-comers record for the distance is 13:00.77 by Kenya’s Richard Limo who recorded that time in winning the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton.
Home head to head - Lopes-Schliep vs Felicien
One of the Canadian athletes looking forward to competing is 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, who faces fellow Canadian and 2003 World champion Perdita Felicien as well as Americans Damu Cherry and Jenny Adams in the women’s 100m hurdles.
“It’s nice to be racing back home in front of my home crowd,” Lopes-Schliep says. “I haven’t run this level of meet in Toronto. So, to be part of this Festival of Excellence is a great experience. I was happy to be involved. Hopefully it will continue for years to come.
“It should be a great race, I am hoping for a fast time. I couldn’t ask for anything better, before Canadian nationals, to have something close to home. Just getting ready for those and Berlin. It will all help me prepare for the World championships and a podium position like last year in Beijing.”
The men’s Mile features 2007 World Championships 1500m bronze medalist Shedrack Korir of Kenya and Canada’s Nathan Brannen who reduced his personal best time to 3:52.63 while finishing 3rd in last Sunday’s Pre Classic.
$250 for best seats
In the absence of sponsors with deep pockets the University of Toronto is underwriting the event and is counting on ticket sales to offset the enormous budget. A finish line seat is on sale for $250 with ‘start line’ seats at $160 each. Despite the seemingly exorbitant prices Carl Georgevski is expecting the event to be sold out by lunch time Wednesday.
“We are not going to apologise for (the prices),” he says. “A meet of this nature does cost money to put on and if I was going to go for comparable seat to see the Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL) or Toronto Raptors (NBA) I would pay as much or more for two and a half hours of entertainment. This is the only appearance of Usain Bolt in North America this year. How many times do we have the opportunity to see these great athletes?”
Paul Gains for the IAAF