Reed runs his way onto world stage
Posted Tuesday, 7 June, 2005
By Cleve Dheensaw, Times Colonist, www.canada.com/sports
Being the Canadian record holder is pretty much inconsequential at the Olympic track and field level. So Gary Reed of Victoria PacificSport was a little-known runner who considered it a rarefied bonus to make the 800-metre semifinals of the 2004 Athens Summer Games last August.
He looked on in awe as fellow competitor Yuri Borzakovskiy blitzed two laps of the Athens track in their semifinal. And then Reed was a spectator and eliminated competitor as the Russian superstar burned through the field in the final to win Olympic gold.
Fast forward to Saturday as Reed defeated Borzakovskiy at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., and broke his own Canadian record in doing so.
International track and field -- oops, sorry, athletics -- purists don't take much notice of Canadian records but they're taking note of this one in this event because it may have heralded the big-time arrival of Reed.
Hometown fans will get their own live glimpse of Reed in action when he helps headline the 17th annual Victoria International Track Fest on Friday evening at Centennial Stadium.
That's a track the 23-year-old Reed has come to know well the past three years since moving from Kamloops to train in Victoria and it has elevated him to be in the hunt now at the highest tier of the international game.
"It doesn't get much bigger than knocking off the defending Olympic champion in the biggest meet in North America . . . it was a mind-boggling weekend," said Reed, still trying to comprehend what he has so freshly accomplished.
"All weekend I felt good and knew I was ready to pull off something really special and it all came together. It was a good step in progress and in terms of making some noise for myself."
There's making noise and then there's breaking your previous Canadian record of 1:44.92 from last year with a blazing clocking of 1:44.82 Saturday. Oh, yeah, and also beating the Olympic champ.
If you think racing at Centennial Stadium on Friday will be a bit of a letdown, guess again. This is the one chance that PacificSport's stable of world-class runners get to perform on their home track and they relish it.
"The Victoria meet is always one of the highlights of the year for me," said Reed. "It's always so exciting to run at home."
Reed, guided by national team running coach Wynn Gmitroski of Victoria, uses the word "home" knowingly. He grew up in Kamloops. He grew into a track star in Victoria.
"It's been a great climb so far these past three years and I want to keep it going as far as I can take it," said Reed.
People are now legitimately asking how far that will eventually be. Reed's time in Eugene qualified him for the 2005 world track and field championships in Helsinki. Making a podium there would truly constitute an arrival.
Gmitroski said Reed is capable of accomplishing on the men's ledger what Commonwealth Games champion and Olympic-medallist runner Angela Chalmers of Victoria did on the women's.
"We're looking at Angela-level talent here on the men's side with Gary," said Gmitroski, who also coached Chalmers.
"We took care of business from last summer . . . beating the Olympic champion was sweet."
Both the men's and women's Canadian 800 metre-record holders -- Reed and Diane Cummins -- came into their own when they began training in Victoria at PacificSport. Olympic semifinalist Cummins was twice a finalist at the world championships and won silver at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.
"The Victoria group feeds off itself," said Brent Fougner, director of the PacificSport national running centre.
"The training together leads to performances like you saw over the weekend -- Diane (Cummins) was third Saturday in Spain (at the IAAF Grand Prix meet in Seville) and Gary broke his own national record and beat the Olympic champion at his own game by out-kicking the Russian who is renowned for his finishing kick."
Reed has indeed kicked his way up to the world stage. But he knows one meet does not a world or Olympic champion make. The journey continues Friday on a friendly stretch of track he has come to know well.
Facebook 
Twitter
i