Hurdlers Perdita Felicien (left) Phylicia George and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep at Toronto's Varsity Stadium Feb. 6, 2012.
Three generations of Canada's top women hurdlers made room for a fourth Monday, as the national high-school track championships drew its first breath at the renovated Varsity Stadium.
There are no better people to launch the May 12 contest than Perdita Felicien, Priscilla Lopes-Schliep and Phylicia George, who have been fuelled by the intense competition among Canadian women hurdlers. It's something they hope the inaugural High School Grand Prix Track and Field Invitational fosters.
"I would have been really, really geeked about this if they had it when I was in high school," Felicien said. "They should probably have a masters division because I would like to enter. … But it's good to have an elite competition, something high-school athletes can aspire to nationally.
"Sometimes [in local and provincial championships]you see the same names and faces. With this, you can see where you stack up against the whole country."
Some 200,000 high schoolers take part in track and field events, making its one of the largest school sports without a national championship. The Toronto meet will bring together a dozen boys' teams and a dozen girls' teams from the provinces and territories, each competing in 10 events.
The event is the brainchild of marketing company TrojanOne, supported by School Sport Canada and sporting goods manufacturer Nike Canada. The sponsors aren't footing all the bills for the inaugural meet: The athletes will be raising funds to cover travel, accommodation, meals and activities.
Felicien has won world championships indoors and outdoors and was favoured to win Olympic gold in 2004, before a fall at a hurdle sent her world spiralling down. She was getting back in form for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but another injury forced her to the sidelines.
Nevertheless, Felicien had shown a Canadian could challenge for the top. Lopes-Schliep followed her and captured a bronze medal in China. She went on to become the No. 1 hurdler in the world, winning the elite Diamond League. But she and her husband became parents five months ago, and now she's coming back to challenge again.
It won't be a given for either of then to make the team for the 2012 London Games. Angela Whyte is a veteran Olympic finalist, while George and Nikita Holder represent a fast, inspired generation on their heels.
Felicien and Whyte were born in 1980; Lopes-Schliep in 1982, and Holder and George in 1987.
"You call me 'Grandma' … can't I be 'Auntie?' " Felicien said. "It's exciting to have the girls around. I am sort of the matriarch … but it speaks to how this event has grown and been extended. I hope that I was in inspiration to girls to even give it a try.
"This year's exciting. I want to be back in the Olympic arena. It might be my last one, and it's been eight years since I was on the Olympic field, but I'm still among the elite, still one of the best in the world," said Felicien, who has moved away from Toronto to Calgary and reunited with coach Gary Winckler.
To be on top, she faces the challenge of Lopes-Schliep, who says motherhood shouldn't stop her from resuming her pace.
"I don't see why I can't be on the podium," she said. "I'm training hard, I have the drive. Some high-school boys said, 'She can't bench press 225 [pounds]in the weight room.' I did it, because I wanted to prove them wrong.
" I don't just want to make the team. Why not go after the biggest prize out there?"
George won't be satisfied with a back seat to the veterans.
"I'm able to train with fast people. I get aggressive," she said. "Making the Canadian Olympic team, because you have to overcome so much to get there, you know you're competitive."