Just over a month ago at a small track meet in Toronto, Justyn Warner blew away the field in the 60 metres in a sizzling time that suddenly vaulted him to fourth fastest in the world this season.
While the accomplishment might have been largely overlooked at home, it was exactly the boost the Toronto sprinter needed heading into the world indoor championships this weekend in Istanbul, Turkey.
Warner’s time of 6.59 seconds opened doors to some major international indoor meets, and the 24-year-old spent the next couple of weeks competing in the U.S., France and Belgium.
“That meet wasn’t anything big, I was way ahead of the field, but that’s what I needed to get into those races with better competition. That’s what it did for me,” Warner said.
Warner will race the 60-metre heats Friday as part of the small Canadian contingent competing in Turkey that includes Dylan Armstrong. The Kamloops, B.C., native, ranked No. 1 in the world last year, is the favourite in men’s shot put.
Warner’s fiancee Nikkita Holder will race the 60-metre hurdles.
“It will be nice, it will be the two of us trying to get on the podium,” Warner said.
Michael Leblanc of Riverview, N.B., will join Warner in the 60.
Warner now has the 12th-fastest time in an event that’s expected to turn into another Jamaica-U.S. duel. Lerone Clarke of Jamaica has been on a roll coming into Istanbul, boasting the world’s fastest time until Trell Kimmons ran 6.45 seconds to top his time by two-hundredths of a second.
Armstrong will be out for revenge when he battles David Storl, the German shot putter who beat him at the world outdoor championships last summer, and Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski of Poland. The U.S. has two strong entries in Reese Hoffa and Ryan Whiting.
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The shot put qualifying round and final are both Friday.
Warner’s performances overseas weren’t as speedy as his breakthrough race at York University, but the sprinter said he learned some big lessons ahead of Istanbul and the 2012 London Olympics.
“I didn’t adapt well to travelling,” Warner said. “It’s easy running at home, you’re in your own environment, we train at York every single day, so you’re just comfortable with it.
“Going away, you’ve got to sleep a lot, rest a lot, drink a lot, and those are things that I didn’t do and I kind of struggled with. Luckily it was my first time doing that, so I needed that experience to learn from it.”
Warner was a promising junior sprinter, racing to silver in the 100 metres at the 2006 world junior championships. He still holds the Canadian junior record of 10.26.
After spending four years of U.S. college track at Texas Christian, Warner’s career is on the rise once again, which bodes well for the sprinter who will be a key member of Canada’s relay team heading into the London Olympics.
The biggest reason for his recent improvement, he said, is he’s finally healthy.
“At school, I had injury after injury, season after season, so these last two years I’ve really been focusing on staying healthy, and with our (training) group we’re able to get the treatments needed to do that,” said Warner, who trains with coaches Desai Williams and Anthony McCleary, in a group that includes hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep.
“We get massages three times a week, we see a chiropractor two to three times a week. . . That allows us to recover from hard practices and be able to come back the next day and do it over again.”
There’s just under US$2.5 million in prize money up for grabs over the next three days with winners pocketing US$40,000, and prize money going all the way down to sixth place (US$4,000). There’s a US$50,00 bonus for any athlete setting a world indoor record.
Sally Pearson will make a run at the four-year-old world indoor hurdles record of 7.68, held by Susanna Kallur of Sweden. The Australian is the runaway in a hurdles field that is missing top Canadians Lopes-Schliep and Perdita Felicien. Lopes-Schliep, No. 1 ranked in the world in the summer of 2010, is rebounding from having a baby last fall.
Pearson is the reigning world outdoor champion, and should be the Canadian’s stiffest challenge in London.
“My body is just ready to run fast,” said Pearson, who rarely races indoors. “I have no idea what I am going to run out there.”
The prelude to one of the big clashes at the London Olympics will be played out on the opening day when defending champion Jessica Ennis faces off against Tatyana Chernova in the pentathlon.
The two will compete in five events in one day, deciding who gets the bragging rights going into the Olympic heptathlon.
In the heats of the 3,000, Ethiopian great Meseret Defar sets off on her quest to become the first female athlete to win five world indoor gold medals in a row.
“This world championship is very special to me,” Defar said Thursday. “I expect to win again.”
Defar, too, sees her race her as a vital preparation for the Olympics, where she will be trying to win back the gold medal she took at the 2004 Athens Games before finishing with bronze in Beijing four years later.
– With files from The Associated Press.
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