A Personal Best in the 150 metre today in Ottawa for Nicolas!

A 6.63 semi-final run tonight for Nic in Montreal was followed by a victory in the 60 metre final in a time of 6.65 seconds.

Fellow Canadian Olympian Anson Henry finished in second place in 6.74 seconds.

Results:

60m INVITATIONAL preliminary -- Semi-Finals

Place Name Time
1 Nicolas Macrozonaris 6.63
2 Henry Anson 6.84
3 Anthony Gerber 6.84
4 Emmanuel Parris 6.88
5 Dave Tomlin 6.92
6 Hank Palmer 6.97
7 Joel Mascoll 6.99
8 Jorge Richardson 7.00
9 Junior Fils-Aimé 7.10
10 Clément Oullet-Léveillée 7.15
11 Nigel Roméo 7.30

The indoor season continues tonight at McGill University where Nicolas attempts to improve on his SB time of 6.62 seconds.

Please see the link in our "other news" section below for details.

Tonights competitors are scheduled to race again this Sunday at the Ottawa dome.

A vantage point very important at K of C Games 
Dave Deibert, The StarPhoenix
Published: Tuesday, January 24, 2006

A seat near the finish line has traditionally been the hot location for spectators during the invitational portion of the Knights of Columbus Indoor Games. This year, says meet director Scott St. Pierre, fans might want to position themselves near the starting blocks.

The reason: It would give them the perfect vantage point to watch a highlight event off the track.

While the men's 50- and 60-metre sprints remain the showcase events at the K of C Games, women's pole vault has raised its profile to the point where this year it's one of the main attractions. The pole vault field for the 41st annual Games, which run Feb. 3-4 at the Saskatoon Field House, is perhaps the best in the history of the event.

"It'll be exciting," said St. Pierre.

The favourite -- both on the runway and in the eyes of fans -- is local star Kelsie Hendry. The three-time defending K of C champion and Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) gold medallist from 2003-05 with the University of Saskatchewan is currently the top-ranked vaulter in Canada and preparing to represent the country at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, from March 15-26.

Another K of C title won't come easy, though. Kate Soma, the 2005 NCAA champ from the University of Washington, has a personal best of 4.36 metres, not far off Hendry's top vault of 4.46; while Canadian Stephanie McCann has to her credit bronze medals from the 2002 Commonwealth Games, 2003 Pan-American Games and a 10th-place finish at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

"Those two are going to challenge (Hendry)," said St. Pierre.

Others to watch include U of S stars Adrianne Vangool, the top-ranked vaulter in CIS, and Leah Vause, a Huskie rookie ranked behind only Vangool; Ebbie Metzinger, the 2005 K of C bronze medallist; Sue Kupper, the 2005 CIS bronze medallist behind Hendry and Vangool; and Brynn Anderson, the 2005 Canada Summer Games champion.

"Probably the best competition Kelsie will get before Commonwealth Games is right here," said St. Pierre.

MEN'S SPRINTS

As good as he expects the pole vault to be, St. Pierre says that fans who choose to situate themselves near the finish line and focus on the sprints won't be disappointed. He expects the men's 60-metre final to be one of the most competitive events of the weekend.

The most familiar name in the field is Nicolas Macrozonaris, K of C champion in both the 50 and 60 numerous times. Others to watch include Jeff Laynes, the fifth-ranked American last year in the 60; Tyree Gailes, the top-ranked American in the 55-metres in 2005; Abe Morlu, a 2000 and 2004 Olympian for Liberia; up-and-coming Canadians Hank Palmer and Adam Newton; plus former United States junior national 100-metre champion Carlos Moore and eight-time NCAA All-American Tom Green.

There's more motivation for the sprinters than just winning a K of C title. Each of them is looking to post fast enough times to meet their country's standards and qualify for the world championships.

Said St. Pierre: "It's going to be an amazing race." Other events on the slate include men's 60-metre hurdles and 200-metres; plus women's 50-, 60-, 200- and 400-metres, and 60-metre hurdles. Local contenders in the women's 50- and 60-metres include ex-Huskies Nicole Buchholz and Karlyn Serby, both of whom ran for Canada at last summer's FISU World University Games. Current Huskie and 2005 CIS champion Andrea Vinet will compete in the women's 60-metre hurdles. Upwards of 4,500 students are scheduled to compete in the elementary-school relays. Weekend passes are $5 and will be available at the door.

ddeibert@sp.canwest.com

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2006

I ran a 6.62 sec. 60-metre race in Sherbrooke this past weekend.  This result is well under the 6.70 IAAF qualification standard for the world indoor championships in Moscow this coming March.

However, Athletics Canada (AC) and Coach Les Gramantik have set the 60-metre Canadian qualification standard at 6.60 seconds, a full tenth of a second faster.  People close to our sport understand that .10 seconds is huge in the 60-metre sprint.  I have attempted to get clarification on AC's reasons for setting such a tough standard, and did receive a reply from coach Gramantik.  The following is part of his reply to me:

"I have examined the last 3 World Indoors Performance Trends (fromBudapest) and the average time in 60m for athletes who did not qualify tothe final was 6.606.  That is why I choose the 6.60.  If I go back 5 Worlds than the average is  6.596."

I am not sure what coach Gramantik was counting, but the average time for athletes who did not qualify for the 60-metre final was much slower than the numbers he provides.

I have gone back myself and reviewed the results from each of the last 3 world indoor championships.  I found that athletes who qualified for the 60-metre final had semi-final results that were slower than 6.60 seconds.  The following shows the average semi-final time of the 8th and final qualifier for the 60-metre final from the last 3 world championships:

2004:                        6.62

2003+2004:             6.645

2001+2003+2004:  6.63

As a result of this oversight, or perhaps a bad calculator, or both, coach Gramantik and Athletics Canada are violating their own stated goal of only sending individuals who are in the top 12 of their event and/or who can make it to a final.  Clearly, athletes who would not have met AC's standard of 6.60 have made 60-metre finals.  In fact, averages don't tell the entire story.  Three athletes who made the finals in 2004 and 2003-- 3 out of 16 finalists-- would have stayed home had AC been deciding their futures!  One in particular ran 6.62 in his semi, the same time I ran this past weekend, and went on to finish 4th in the final, one spot away from a medal!

Nicolas Macrozonaris

Nicolas ran his fastest 60m race in 3 years today, winning in Sherbrooke in 6.62 seconds.

Not since January of 2003, when he clocked his 3rd successive sub 6.60 time in a month, running 6.58 in Montreal on January 25th of that year, has Nicolas been in this type of form.

Form, of course, is a critical element in this sport, as both the 2004 and 2005 seasons made painfully clear.  Both those seasons were mired by injuries however, and when injuries take hold of a sprinter, there isn't much he can do, other than to hope and pray for better days. 

It has taken 2 years for the better days to emerge, but who are we to question? In life all we can do is take what we have been given, and try to make the best of it.  And while some go straight for the moon and get there on their first attempt, the majority of people encounter bumps in the road.  This only makes them stronger.

Speaking to Nicolas after his race, he commented that he ran an all around smooth race today, including getting a good start, an area of his race he has been working on of late.  His 6.62 second clocking followed a semi-final time of 6.74 seconds.

For the second time this indoor season, Nicolas has met the world indoors standard, set at 6.70 seconds by the international governing body, the IAAF.  It also would have been good enough to meet Canadian world indoor championship team standards of years past, but not good enough to make the Canadian team going to Moscow in early March. 

Nicolas will be running again in Ottawa shortly.  Please stay tuned for the dates.

galako62904@yahoo.com

Nicolas ran 3 solid races in a 2 hour span last Sunday at the Ottawa Dome. 

Despite struggling with his starts, an area of his race that will come around if history is any indication, he nevertheless came back strong is each race to overtake the field and score rather impressive results.

In the 100m race, an oddity in January, Nic did not get out well in the first 20m, but crossed the line in 10.50 seconds, a head turning result at this stage of the new season.  His nearest competitor was Anson Henry, who finished about 2 metres behind, in 10.70.

galako62904@yahoo.com

*******************

Ottawa Dôme Super Sunday Athletics Series - 1/8/2006             
Meet 2 of 9                                 
Ottawa, ON                                  
Results           

Men 60 Meter
=======================================================================
 (Invitation Event)
    Name                    Year Team                    Finals  Points
=======================================================================
  1  2004 Macrozonaris, Nico  80 S-L Select                6.74 
  2  2005 Henry, Anson        79 Nike                      6.79 
  3  2003 Allen, Charles         Nike                      6.83 
  4  2002 McLennan, Justin    84 Elite Edges               6.89 
  5  2006 Collins, Dennison   83 Mississauga               6.92 
  6  2007 Lewis, Jared        83 Elite Edges               7.01 
  7    32 Barbarie, Daniel    82 Ottawa Lions              7.06 
  8  2008 MacInnis, Luke      81 Queen's U                 7.11 
  9     9 Alexis, Jordan      88 Ottawa Lions              7.31 
 
Men 100 Meter
=======================================================================
    Name                    Year Team                    Finals  Points
=======================================================================
  1  2004 Macrozonaris, Nico  80 S-L Select               10.50 
  2  2005 Henry, Anson        79 Nike                     10.70 
  3  2006 Collins, Dennison   83 Mississauga              11.01 
  4  2002 McLennan, Justin    84 Elite Edges              11.02 
  5  2013 Richard, Bianco     88 Perfmax Racing           11.08 
  6  2007 Lewis, Jared        83 Elite Edges              11.10 
  7    32 Barbarie, Daniel    82 Ottawa Lions             11.11 
  8  2008 MacInnis, Luke      81 Queen's U                11.13 
  9   109 Despres-Bedward, A  87 Ottawa Lions             11.48 
 10  2011 Peterson, Timotis   87 Perfmax Racing           11.55 
 11     9 Alexis, Jordan      88 Ottawa Lions             11.58 
 12   248 Monsour, Ramon      90 Ottawa Lions             11.60 
 13    34 Batt, Jeremy        89 Ottawa Lions             11.62 
 14   365 Williams, Lawrence  70 Ottawa Lions             11.75 
 15  2014 Ellemo, Eric        89 Perfmax Racing           11.96 
 16   179 Huynh, Adrian       90 Ottawa Lions             12.02 
 17   148 Gauthier-Kwan, Oli  89 Ottawa Lions             12.05 
 18  2012 Kangni, Jerry       68 Perfmax Racing           12.11 
 18  2010 Alie, Jarod         79 Perfmax Racing           12.11 
 20   200 Kozera, Jeffrey     90 Ottawa Lions             12.24 
 21  2016 Leblanc, Eric       90 Cornwall Cougars         12.27 
 22  2018 Charbonneau, Jason  92 S-L Select               12.37 
 23  2015 Morin-Pelletier, D  78 Ottawa                   12.39 
 24   349 Vallière, Iain      90 Ottawa Lions             12.57 
 25  2017 Chun, Sterling      88 Perfmax Racing           12.60 
 26  2019 Pierre E., Nicolas  87 Perfmax Racing           13.01 
 27    13 Anderson, Daniel    92 Ottawa                   13.14 
 28  2001 Harou, Yannick      92 S-L Select               13.18 
 29  2022 Quosdorf, Kristian  93 Cornwall Cougars         13.65 
 30  2032 Bucci, Michael      94 West Island T.C.         14.27 
 31  2024 Bernard, Bratu      94 Perfmax Racing           14.39 
 32  2029 Assimakopoulos, Ph  82 West Island T.C.         14.43 
 33  2026 Blunden, Alexander  93 West Island T.C.         14.81 
 34  2033 Connolly, David     95 West Island T.C.         15.72 
 35  2031 Arnone, Thomas      94 West Island T.C.         15.79 
 36   359 Wardle, Ray         33 Ottawa Lions             15.85 
 
Men 200 Meter
=======================================================================
    Name                    Year Team                    Finals  Points
=======================================================================
  1  2004 Macrozonaris, Nico  80 S-L Select               21.49 
  2  2005 Henry, Anson        79 Nike                     21.54 
  3  2002 McLennan, Justin    84 Elite Edges              22.18 
  4    32 Barbarie, Daniel    82 Ottawa Lions             22.24 
  5  2046 Johnson, Adam       88 I Be Fast                22.53 
  6  2008 MacInnis, Luke      81 Queen's U                22.67 
  7   109 Despres-Bedward, A  87 Ottawa Lions             23.30 
  8     9 Alexis, Jordan      88 Ottawa Lions             23.59 
  9   248 Monsour, Ramon      90 Ottawa Lions             23.80 
 10  2011 Peterson, Timotis   87 Perfmax Racing           24.08 
 11   179 Huynh, Adrian       90 Ottawa Lions             24.55 
 12  2010 Alie, Jarod         79 Perfmax Racing           24.63 
 13  2047 Thomas, Troy        90 Cornwall Cougars         25.09 
 14  2018 Charbonneau, Jason  92 S-L Select               25.49 
 15  2017 Chun, Sterling      88 Perfmax Racing           25.74 
 15   349 Vallière, Iain      90 Ottawa Lions             25.74 
 17  2016 Leblanc, Eric       90 Cornwall Cougars         25.76 
 18  2019 Pierre E., Nicolas  87 Perfmax Racing           26.71 
 19  2022 Quosdorf, Kristian  93 Cornwall Cougars         27.73 
 20  2032 Bucci, Michael      94 West Island T.C.         29.54 
 21  2026 Blunden, Alexander  93 West Island T.C.         30.54 
 22  2029 Assimakopoulos, Ph  82 West Island T.C.         30.73 
 23  2024 Bernard, Bratu      94 Perfmax Racing           30.74 
 24  2044 Gravel, Ludovic     93 Cirrus                   31.39 
 25  2048 Tomalty, Tyler      94 Moc                      32.20 
 26   359 Wardle, Ray         33 Ottawa Lions             33.06 
 27  2031 Arnone, Thomas      94 West Island T.C.         33.54