Hope Springs Eternal

"May you live in interesting times", is said to be an ancient Chinese curse.  Whether a real curse is a discussion for another day, but the world of track and field, the Athens Games as well as our very own Nicolas Macrozonaris have been having a pretty "interesting" time since the curtain went down on the 2003 season.  

Before we begin, a little housekeeping.  In the when-it-rains-it-pours category these "interesting" times also found shelter on our website recently, knocking us offline for more than a  month.  We can report that all is well now, the gremlins were sent packing and we invite everyone to view our updated photo gallery with plenty of new pictures of Nicolas and friends on and off the track!  As promised, we will also have race videos in the near future.

Back to business.  When we last reported the news, Nicolas was on his way across the pond.  He opened his European season in Birmingham on February 20th, running a season's best of 6.63 seconds to finish fourth. 

Two days later, in Athens, the interesting times began...in the form of a sore hamstring while warming up for his 60m run.  Despite the sore leg Nicolas managed a strong 6.63 sec. third place finish, behind local favorite Georgios Theodoridis.  One can only wonder what he might have run with 100% health.

We move on to the World Indoor Championships.  Nicolas' strategy throughout the indoor season was to keep building and arrive peaking in Budapest.  He ran a very smooth 6.67 seconds in his opening heat on Friday, March 5 to qualify for the next round, feeling strong with good promise heading into the semis.  Those hopes, however, were quashed by a freak accident on the start line for the semi-final, which saw Nicolas take a warm-up hop only to land on the starting blocks, twisting his ankle in the process.  He nevertheless tried to run the race on the bad ankle, miraculously managed a .103 reaction time, but couldn't pull it off jogging across the finish line last in a pedestrian 7.23 seconds.

Now we are not sure what to make of this no-luck-but-bad-luck affliction indoors in Europe...folks may remember last year's World Indoors where a stomach virus knocked Nicolas out of serious competition as well.  But whatever it was, Nicolas tells me he gave it a solid kicking in the butt prior to leaving the Continent...

So we move onwards and upwards, spring is in the air and preparations have started for the outdoor season.  Nicolas is nursing his ankle back to health in Montreal, and will resume hard training in the next couple of weeks.  The first of three training camps in the warm Florida sun in early April should go a long way in laying the foundations for the outdoor season as we all sprint towards the Athens Games. 

Speaking of Athens, we wish them all the best as they sprint towards their finish line as well!

Chris Galakoutis
galako62904@yahoo.com