Canadian Track Championships takes Centre Stage

TORONTO, CANADA

Perdita Felicien and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep are the faces of Canadian track and field. The two women’s hurdlers have dominated the sport in Canada, racked up international acclaim and, as luck would have it, competed against one another 30 times since 2004, battling to a nearly even record.


It is a rivalry the two downplay off the track but organizers of this year’s Canadian championships are acutely aware of it. The hurdles final, which will be run Saturday at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium, has been dubbed “P vs. P.” The hurdles final, which will be run Saturday at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium, has been dubbed “P vs. P.” Despite her seven previous wins at the Canadian track and field championships, Perdita was a bit of an underdog after missing much of the previous year with a stress fracture. Part of that relief must have come from beating Lopes-Schliep, who had claimed the Canadian crown in her absence and parlayed it into a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics.

The similarities between Felicien, 29, and Lopes-Schliep, 27, are too much to ignore, from their desire to be the best at the same sport, to the same southern Ontario background — Perdita is from Pickering, Priscilla from nearby Whitby — to the joyful alliteration their names allow.

Says Felicien, the 2003 world champion: “On the track I am very intense. For me, it is easier not to like my competition. I’m not catty or vindictive, but it is my race and those are my 10 hurdles.”

Perdita has finished ahead 16 times, Priscilla has been in front 14 times. Felicien set the Canadian record for women’s 100-metre hurdles of 12.46 seconds. Lopes-Schliep won the first Olympic track and field medal by a Canadian women since 1992. Felicien has won a gold and silver at the world championships. Lopes-Schliep has her own silver.

“Having Perdita and Priscilla at our camps, everybody ups their game, frankly. Everybody tries to be better because we have better people around them,” said Alex Gardiner, head coach of Athletics Canada. “These girls know pressure. But we need leaders too, and they are leaders.”

They will be expected to lead by example. The Canadian Olympic Committee has targeted a 12th-place finish on the medal table at the 2012 London Olympics, and a double podium in women’s hurdles would help reach that target. How long the rivalry will continue is uncertain. Both brushed aside suggestions that their careers were nearing the end — Jamaican Brigitte Foster-Hylton, after all, was 34 when she won the world title last year — but Felicien would not commit beyond London.

Whether it is Lopes-Schliep dancing on the track come Saturday, or Felicien pumping her fists in the air for a second straight year, both women know they bring attention to Canadian track and field. Their wish, come the London Olympics, is for more athletes to carry the burden.