Dr. Peter is thrilled to congratulate Gary Reed on his second place finish in the men's 800 metres final at the 11th IAAF WOrld Athletics Championships in Osaka. Dr. Peter is currently in Osaka working with the Canadian athletes and sent some photos and a press piece to share with everyone.
News story from the Montreal Gazette September 2, 2007
Reed, a 25-year-old from Kamloops, B.C., who makes Victoria his home and training base, scored a stunning
800-metre silver-medal victory on the final night of the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics,
missing the gold by 1-100th of a second.
But don't think even for that eyeblink of time that the missed-it-by-that-much finish of the race had left Reed downcast. "I'm ecstatic, man," he said in the Nagai Stadium interview zone moments after having left the track. "A silver is great. What can I say? I left it all out there. I have no regrets about the way I raced. It's all positive, and I feel just great going into Beijing (for next summer's Olympics)." It was Canada's second medal of these championships, 100-metre hurdler Perdita Felicien of Pickering, Ont., having won silver last Wednesday. Chantal Petitclerc of Montreal earned gold in the 1,500-metre wheelchair demonstration event on Saturday, a medal not counted in official standings.
Reed was outleaned at the photo-beam finish line by Kenya's Alfred Kirwa Yego, who stopped the clock atone minute, 47.09 seconds. Reed timed 1:47.10, with Russia's Yuri Borzakovski, the Athens Olympic champion and twice worlds runner-up, taking the bronze in 1:47.39. Third through sixth places were separated by 6-100ths. Reed led the two-lap race from the start, braking the pace when he went to the front of the eight-man field. He ran the first 400 metres in 1:55, almost a fast walk at this level, but brought it home in a negative split of 1:52. Yego's victory was Kenya's first in this event in 14 years; you have to go back to Bill Crothers at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to find Canada's last major international men's silver in the 800.
"I was very confident," Reed said of his tactics, having won his heat and semifinal rounds here. "I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do, but I slowed it down when I went into the lead because I was gaining a lot of confidence going through the (earlier) rounds at a slow pace.
"I think I ran smart enough to get a medal. I tried to use my wits through this championship, and use everything that I've learned in the past. I feel like I did that. I'm very proud of myself and my accomplishments."
If Reed was certain of his first-gear strategy, the same can't be said for Wynn Gmitroski, his veteran coach.
"I thought, 'Oh my God, this is so slow, it's dangerous,' " Gmitroski said, eyes red with overflowing emotion.
"But Gary was in a good position and he had a clean run the whole way.
"We believed he was capable of beating anyone out there. The idea was just to go out and race. I didn't know how it was going to go (with strategy), but we knew he could do it any which way." Gmitroski said he couldn't be happier with the result.
"With Gary being beaten by 1-100th of a second, it keeps him a little hungrier for next year."
Is it better this way?
He laughed.
"We'll find out in a year."
Which brings the story to the naked wall in Osaka.
Felicien used the team-packed Canadian flag for her celebration lap Wednesday, and turned it back in. It was
given to Petitclerc on Saturday, but she checked out of the team hotel before returning it. So a few hours before Reed's race on Sunday, with a medal a very real possibility, there wasn't a Canadian flag to be found. Team officials frantically consulted with meet volunteers, and a small army of them scoured the city unsuccessfully. That is, until one woman said she had a Canadian friend living in town, so just maybe ...
He has it no longer. The woman zipped off to fetch it, getting it to the stadium an hour before Reed ran and then wrapped himself in the red and white. For the Canadian record-holder (1:43.93), this sterling result rewarded his effort and dedication of the past few years. His progression has had him marching inexorably this way. At the 2003 worlds in Paris, Reed missed the semifinals by 1-100th, edged out by three-time world champion Wilson Kipketer. A year later, he won his Athens Olympic heat and bowed out in the semis "because he was so pumped up," Gmitroski said. "But he was learning."
He made the final at worlds in Helsinki in 2005, finishing eighth. But he hailed that experience and said it
sharpened his focus, setting off to run in Europe to gain more seasoning. Along the way, he stumbled at last year's Melbourne Commonwealth Games, failing to advance from his heat. "That was a huge disappointment," his coach said. "That was the biggest learning curve on the whole path. When you come to the biggest disappointment, oftentimes you learn the most. We've learned a lot this year, and it's nice to learn when you're doing well, too."
Reed might have reviewed all of the above just before the start, talking to himself in the final moments before
the gun. "I was telling myself, 'You can win this race, you know you can win it, you've trained hard for this race all
year,'_'' he said. "I kept telling myself to be confident.'' Reed recalls the watershed 2005 Helsinki final, of "not being strong enough to win a medal. "Two years later, I've been working really hard. I didn't do anything different this year than I did before Helsinki, just training hard, focusing and working toward a medal. That just what I came out here and did,
and I'm so happy.'' Reed's agent was in the mixed zone, saying this performance paves the way to lucrative, strategically
scheduled races leading to Beijing. Like a beaming Oscar winner, Reed thanked a shopping list of people who have long been in his corner: "My family, girlfriend and her family, massage therapist, coach, everybody who's been supporting me over the
years, every relative, every friend of mine, my grandmother who I love dearly ...''
He laughed and drew a breath before being hustled off for the medal ceremony, the hastily procured flag still worn tightly around his shoulders. "It's amazing,'' he said, shaking his head. "This gives me all the confidence in the world for Beijing. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing.''
