Felicien's 12.50 and Christopher's 45.10 top-out Canadian Champs

Perdita Felicien won the gold medal in the women’s 100m Hurdles and Tyler Christopher took the men’s 400m to highlight the 2007 RBC Canadian Track and Field Championships in Windsor, Ontario (12 – 15 July) at the University of Windsor Stadium.

Felicien, the 2003 World champion, clocked 12.50 seconds to edge Angela Whyte in second at 12.55 and Priscilla Lopes in third at 12.82.

“It was a hard race,” said Felicien. “It's the first time in years I was scared before a race.  My focus was to win.  Angela got out very well and had an early edge; I had a lot of work to do to come back. The wind was really strong and really messed with my rhythm.”

In the men’s 400m, Christopher took the gold in a meet and track record 45.10. Christopher is happy to head to the Pan Am Games with the victory. “It's always good to win and it's positive to be going in on top,” said Christopher, the World Championship bronze medalist in 2005. “I decided at the beginning that the meet record was going down.  It was windy but I worked with it, I was relaxed and controlled the race.”

In the men’s 110m Hurdles, Charles Allen collected his fifth national title in the event clocking 13.58. “My plan is now to go to Europe, run fast and qualify for the World Championships,” said Allen. “I am somewhat healthy, I had a hamstring issue but it's getting there.  My agent was waiting to see what happened today, he will be calling me now any day and let me know when my first race in Europe will be.”

Gary Reed reclaimed the national title in the men’s 800m on the final day of competition beating defending champion Achraf Tadili to conclude the championships. Reed clocked 1:44.93 to earn his fourth career national title.  Tadili was second in 1:45.84 and Andrew Ellerton third in 1:47.48. “I am happy with my race, it was faster then I thought,” said Reed. “There's a lot of work behind it but the key to my success is staying focused.”

Adam Kunkel took the men's 400m Hurdles. He clocked 50.52 seconds for his fifth national title. On Saturday, he clocked a meet and track record 49.68. “Yesterday I got the meet record out of the way, today I concentrated on the Canadian title,” said Kunkel. “I went out a little too quick and got tired at the end.  I wanted to run in the 48 second range today but I ran out of gas.”

Mathieu Gentès for the IAAF