Sunday, June 27, 1999
Surin leads the pack
Wins 100-metre final at national championships
By JUDY OWEN -- Winnipeg Sun
Three groups of adoring autograph seekers stood on the Pan Am Stadium track after the men's 100-metre final
yesterday.
One could be classified as large, the other medium and the third a size small.
At the centre of each circle was one of the race's competitors.
But the large crowd wasn't smothering the most likely participant of the Canadian Senior Track and Field
Championships' premiere event -- winner Bruny Surin in a time of 9.88.
No, third-place finisher Donovan Bailey (10.19) was the one being mobbed by dozens of fans, while Surin attracted
the medium-sized crowd and Alberta's silver-medallist Brad McCuaig (10.18) stood in the middle of the smallest
group.
"I don't care," Surin said of his lesser flock, reaching out with a smile to sign every piece of
paper thrust his way.
And as always, he really meant it.
The back-to-back national champion is used to being overshadowed by others and that's OK by him. What's important
to the 31-year-old Montrealer is how he performs.
And the 9.88 he clocked -- which would have been a personal best if it hadn't been a wind-aided time -- felt
pretty good.
"I'm very satisfied," said Surin, who ran a 9.89 at last year's nationals. "Too much wind,
but that's part of the game. Nothing I can do about it."
Despite the lack of a new personal mark, the race did give Surin something he wanted.
"Now I know I can be running against the top guys here," Surin said. "Psychologically, I'm
100 per cent. I'm just ready to go back to Europe and go back to training."
Surin is heading to Rome for a July 7 race.
If his recent performances are any indication, a legitimate 9.88 is just around the corner.
And he feels that way, too, because yesterday's race wasn't technically perfect.
"If I put everything in one way, it should be much faster than that," said Surin, who's posted
times of 9.92 and 9.97 this season.
And it could even get down to the new world record of 9.79, set by American Maurice Greene earlier this month.
"The time with Maurice, why not?" Surin said. "I'm very, very excited. I've been doing all
my best times over 10, 20, 30, 40 (metres) last week. If I can maintain that speed and be 100-per-cent technically
OK, his time is nothing."
This weekend's meet is also the qualifier for the Pan Am Games, July 23-Aug.8 in Winnipeg, and the world
championships in Spain Aug. 20-30.
Surin will run in the 4x100m relay at Pan Ams, but is passing on the individual 100 to save himself for the
worlds.
He was supposed to line up again today at the University of Manitoba stadium and try to break the Canadian
record in the 200m, but has decided to bypass the event because of the iffy weather and go home instead.
"Maybe I'll do a 200 in Europe and try to break it there," Surin said.
As far as seeing Bailey put up a pretty good time yesterday, Surin was all for it.
"He's very happy and I'm very happy, too, because I train with him a lot of time in Austin (Texas),"
Surin said.
"I see all kinds of treatment he's been doing every day, before training, after training. Most other
guys would just quit it right there."