By JIM MORRIS Friday, June 8, 2007 BURNABY, B.C. (CP) - A second-place finish in a 100-metre sprint Friday night showed Nicolas Macrozonaris where he is and how much faster he needs to go. Anson Henry of Toronto won the race at the Harry Jerome International Track Classic in 10.39 seconds. Macrozonaris, the defending Canadian 100-metre champion, was clocked in a slow 10.47. "You win some, you lose some," shrugged the two-time Olympian. "It’s part of the game. "I will use this as a preparation for the races at the end of the season. I’m still a little bit behind in terms of where I should be in training. I’m missing a little bit of speed endurance." Henry was pleased with the time on the Swangard Stadium track. "This hasn’t been a typically fast track, it’s cool here a lot of the time," said Henry, who won last year’s 100 metres at the meet. "I’m pretty happy with that." Macrozonaris is trying to reinvent himself and put his career back on the fast track. He left his native Montreal and moved to Edmonton to train with coach Kevin Tyler. "I wanted to leave the comfort zone in Montreal," said the 26-year-old. "There was a lot of distractions given that I was born there and have a lot of friends and family. "I wanted to leave all that behind to sacrifice a couple years of my life and dedicate it to 100 per cent track and field." Prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics Macrozonaris looked like he would be Canada’s next sprint star. In 2002 he ran a wind-aided 9.91 seconds to win the national championships in Edmonton. In 2003 he was clocked in 10.03 in Mexico City, beating world champion Tim Montgomery. But things went off the rail at the 2004 Athens Olympics when he finished 28th. He also battled with sprint coach Glenroy Gilbert over which spot he’d run on the 4x100-metre relay team. Macrozonaris admits he sometimes had trouble handling success. "Beating a world-record holder (Montgomery) out of the blue kind of changed my life for good," he said. "There are some things I had difficulties in handling." Tyler said Macrozonaris has been a good pupil in Edmonton. "He’s very serious about the sport," said Tyler, who also coaches 400-metre specialist Tyler Christopher. "In the 2.5 months he’s been there he’s deconstructed his race. "We’ve changed his start, we’ve changed his acceleration pattern. We just haven’t had time to work on the speed endurance. That’s the next thing that is going to come." In other results Friday, Genevieve Thibault of Val Belair, Que., won the women’s 100 metres in 11.99 seconds. American Antwon Hicks took the men’s 110-hurdles in 13.61 while China’s Quigbo Wang won the javelin with a toss of 73.96 metres. Vancouver’s Rebecca Johnstone won the 800 metres in 2:03.60. In the past the Jerome meet has attracted stars like Olympic gold medallist Donovan Bailey, Australia’s Cathy Freeman and Americans Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Carl Lewis. This year, some of Canada’s top track stars missed the event because of the NCAA track and field championships being held in Sacramento, Calif. Sunday’s Prefontaine meet in Oregon also drained away some talent. The meet still has drawn athletes that have competed at Olympics and world championships. Since 2005, a small team from China has competed at the meet. This year 26 Chinese athletes participated. Macrozonaris’s goal is to qualify for next summer’s Beijing’s Olympics. He’d love to reach the finals in the 100 metres, maybe win a medal with the relay team. He notes Olympic Bailey and Olympic medallist Bruny Surin didn’t run some of their best times until later in their careers. "I want to re-establish myself as an international athlete like I did in 2003," he said. "I’ve been trying very hard to get that level the last couple of years. It’s been very difficult for me. "I’m looking forward to running fast this year. I think things are going extremely well." The meet is named after Canadian sprinter Harry Jerome, who in 1960 at the age of 19, ran the 100 metres in 10.0 seconds to become the first Canadian to officially hold a world track record. That mark stood until the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Jerome won a bronze medal at the 1964 Tokyo Games, despite having a severe hamstring injury.

Gary Kingston, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 
Source: Canada.com
  
VANCOUVER - A couple of years before he got into track, Canada's fastest man, Nicolas Macrozonaris, spent two of his early teenage years living in Richmond, B.C., where he had a paper route delivering the Richmond Review.

In 2000, six years after his family moved back to Montreal, he returned to Richmond to compete in the annual track classic at Minoru Park, set a meet record and found his picture on the front page of that same paper.

"I thought, 'Holy shit, it's interesting how life's journey comes full circle.' "

Now 26, the Montreal-born Macrozonaris is trying to complete another circle, back to elite status after his sprint journey was stalled for a couple of years by injury, indifference and clashes with Athletics Canada over carding money and his place on relay teams.

Macrozonaris, who moved to Edmonton in March to join Canada's most impressive track training group under coaches Kevin Tyler and Derek Evely, will run the 100 metres Friday at the Harry Jerome Track Classic at Swangard Stadium.

And while he's not scheduled to run with Canada's 4x100 relay team at the Jerome, he has quietly let national relay coach Glenroy Gilbert know he's willing to be considered again.

"I talked to him a week ago, told him I'm happy, things are going good for me and I'm in a position where I could give some of my time to the relay program," Macrozonaris said Tuesday from Edmonton. "The reality is that I'm 26 and I want to win a (Olympic) medal, and realistically the best chance to do it is through the relay program."

Macrozonaris ran a wind-aided 9.91 in winning the 2002 national championship at Edmonton and then 10.03 at altitude in Mexico City in 2003, beating world champion Tim Montgomery in the process.

But he finished just 28th at the Athens Olympics, a huge disappointment given his Greek heritage, and figured it was time to "leave the comfort zone" of Montreal. However, relocations to Florida in 2005 - "an absolute disaster" - and Ottawa in 2006 didn't work out, the latter because he felt disrespected by Athletics Canada, which denied him carded status even though he was injured in 2005.

He still managed to win a third Canadian title last summer, but his time was a mediocre 10.31. He felt he was just spinning his spikes. So this spring, he relocated to Edmonton where he trains with 400-metre champion Tyler Christopher, bronze medallist at the 2005 worlds, and rising stars Brian Barnett, Adam Kunkel, Carline Muir and Keston Nelson.

"It's an amazing environment for me to be in," says Macrozonaris. "I'm surrounded by so many people who have a common vision to excel in this sport.

"I truly believe my physical prime is approaching. Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin ran their best times later in their career."

Kevin Tyler said getting the gregarious Macrozonaris into a positive environment with a committed training group should allow the sprinter to get back to consistently running in the 10.10 to 10.15 range. Early this season, however, he's unluckily faced either a headwind or an illegal tailwind whenever he's run. Last weekend, in Utah, he qualified in a wind-aided 10.11, but ran just 10.38 in the final.

Macrozonaris needs to hit 10.21 to qualify for the Pan Am Games in July. Given a strong lineup on Friday and the right weather conditions - "I have a connection with the Greek God of weather," he laughs - he likes his chances.

As for rejoining the relay team, Macrozonaris says he's made the approach, now it's up to Gilbert.

"I would never say the door is closed for any athlete that is ready to commit to a program," said Gilbert. "What we're trying to encourage with these athletes is the relay shouldn't be something you come at because your individual race doesn't work out. And it's about team unity and being a part of a team in good times and bad times, not just when it suits you."

Gilbert does think Macrozonaris is on the right track to recapturing his form.

"He's in a good place, a good system. They've got a great stable of athletes out west and you hope success begets success."

gkingston@png.canwest.com

Vancouver Sun

© CanWest News Service 2007