Canadian Hurdlers
Four of Canada’s top five internationally decorated women’s sprint hurdlers will be in action today at the 2012 Diamond League series kick off in Doha, Qatar. Perdita Felicien of Pickering, Ont., Phylicia George of Markham, Ont., Nikkita Holder of Pickering, Ont., and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Whitby, Ont., will all be in the same race in what is sure to be a preview of the upcoming Track and Field Trials. Of course the Trials later this summer will determine which three of Canada’s fab five hurdlers earn the right to don the maple leaf at the Olympic Games. The fifth member of Canada’s hurdling powerhouse is Angela Whyte of Edmonton, Alta who has already notched the Olympic A standard but is not racing in Doha.
2010 100-metre hurdle Diamond League champion Lopes-Schliep is back in fine form after taking a year off to start her family. Lopes-Schliep gave birth in September, in only her second outdoor race this past weekend she finished second at the Jamaica Invitational in a blazing fast Olympic A+ standard time of 12.64 seconds.
Racing Lopes-Schliep will be club teammates Nikkita Holder and Phylicia George who finished sixth and seventh respectively at the 2011 World Championships. Holder and George have seasonal bests of 12.84 and 12.87, both Olympic A standards. Rounding out the Canadian content in Doha is 2007 World Championship silver medalist and two-time World Champ Perdita Felicien.
Live streaming coverage of the Doha Diamond League begins at noon eastern time today with the women’s hurdles set to go at 1:12pm.
In each of the first two seasons of the IAAF Diamond League a Canadian athlete has captured a prestigious diamond encrusted trophy. Lopez-Schliep won the Diamond League title in the 100-metre hurdles in 2010 while Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops, B.C., won the shot put Diamond League title in 2011.
