Bruny Surin Calls Out Canadian Sprinters

General Discussion Debates
1

I just wish Bruny would enlighten us on how to run those fast times rather than beating down on Canadian sprinters.

This was what Bruny posted on www.trackie.ca and some others (allegedly Nic Macrozonaris) provided comments.

Any comments from CF.com members?

The State of Canadian Sprinting
12/16 08:52pm

Today it takes almost a performance of 9.9 seconds over 100 metres to get an invitation from the big races and to earn respect from the meeting organizers and sponsors. Running 9.9 is not a big thing anymore. Fans enjoy watching races that are won in 9.80 otherwise they become bored.

Canada dominated the sprinting world from 1994 to 1998, with house hold names such as Donovan Bailey, Bruny Surin, Glenroy Gilbert, Robert Esmie, Carlton Chambers and Peter Ogilvie. We now see ourselves in drought and in a serious crisis period; it would appear like the new generation cannot step up for themselves. It has been 6 years since the old generation of Canadian sprinters retired and still we are waiting anxiously for the youngsters to take the relay baton.

I have done some analysis to try to find out why we are having problems with our sprinters. I compare the mentality, the work ethics and the program compared to the other sprinters around the globe. Honestly, I think Canadian sprinting needs a serious wakeup call. Someone needs to run fast, and shake things up, and let people know that running 10.30, or 10.20 is not going to cut it. Winning Canadian Nationals doesn’t mean anything if the winning time doesn’t reflect a world time. Last year I saw and heard people flipping out when Michael Leblanc ran 10.17, sure it is a decent time for a young man his age, but in the big picture 10.17 is nothing to get excited over. No one should be that impressed by 10.17, I know I am not. I am happy to see his progress, but he still needs to do a lot of work before people call him a great Canadian runner.

The problem with a lot of Canadian sprinters is that it is too easy to just “get by”, and people are happy with just getting by. People run their 10.30 or whatever, make a national team, get carded, and that is good enough for them. The truth is that is not good enough. If they want to be great, if they want to be remembered, they have to lead a career full of great accomplishments worth remembering.

I actually called Michael Leblanc to see his point of view about his time etc, and I can tell you that I was so impressed to discover his maturity. He knows exactly how it is to be an international athlete and he explained to me how he will work hard over the season and that 10.17 that he ran was nothing for him. That was great news for me. In another words this is the exact attitude to have. He expects to run 10.08 or faster next season and just by his attitude I believe him. We also have Brian Barnett focusing on the 100/200 double; I think he has the talent to run 20.10 next year. Jared Connaughton and Anson Henry will do some damage as well and hopefully Nicolas Macrozonaris will put everything together. Lets keep our fingers crossed that one of the emerges into greatness. If people start doing what they are supposed to do and capable of doing, there is going to be a new standard in Canadian sprinting and we will see our Flag rise again on the International scene.

www.brunysurin.blogspot.com/

Posted by Motts (allegedly Nic Macrozonaris)

hey bruny, how can someone get motivated when you say that 10.1 isn’t anything to get excited about.

check your races:

www.geocities.com/bradstuart7/races.html

you ran so many 10.1 in your career. What are you saying? I should look up to Justin Gatlin as a role Model?

10.1 is a very solid time that would get you into most major championship finals. I try hard to run fast, I am aware and I agree with you 100%, but you pointing it out just adds insult to injury.

especially when you know what I been through

Bruny’s Reply:

To get my point clear you know there are people when you kick them in the ass to move forward to get better, either they take it the wrong way or maybe they take it as encouragement. Some people posted about understanding, compassion and patience…

Reality is in the Sprint world there is no compassion, no understanding it is war so if you are not ready for war better stay home. My intention is to encourage our sprinters because I know for a fact they can be better, and faster than that and I am not comparing my times with theres. There is something called EVOLUTION, so for people comparing my times to todays times just showed me that you dont get the point at all. I had the priveldge to wacth Brussels Golden League and Berlin Golden League this summer where I spoke to meet organisers, agents, coaches and many top athletes and my notes reflect the reality, I dont’ set the standards. In fact I want those guys to run faster than the times I was running. If anyone took my message wrong or are too sensitive about it so be it.

As for Nic, if he runs 9.8 I will be the first one to embrace him, and he knows it

Nic’s reply:

I think Bruny is and will always be a legend in the 100 meters.

He can influence a lot of people outside the track world
when he goes and says 10.1 is worthless and the general public will believe him. I think Bruny forgot that Kim Collins ran only few times sub10 in his career, but was way more successful than a guy who ran 9.8 like fasuba… and I think Bruny should respect a guy like Kim and his no so impressive 10.1…after all he made every single major championship finals with that. Plus tons and tons of medals.

bruny, next time someone runs 10.1… please dont compair him to asafa powel. now excuse me… I need to impress the general public with running 9.8, thanks bruny!!!

Nic again:

Tony… Asafa ran 9.74…

he is better than Gatlin, Montgomery, and Ben Johnson and all that CLEAN!!

aside all that… 10.1 is and should always be impressive.

No diference from now and 10 or 20 years ago… I don’t agree with this “new” era bullshit…

Results - 100 METRES - Men - Final

Sunday, August 25, 1991 - 19:05 Wind: 1.2 m/s
Pos Lane Athlete Country Mark
1 5 Lewis Carl USA 9.86 (WR)
2 3 Burrell Leroy USA 9.88
3 6 Mitchell Dennis USA 9.91 (PB)
4 4 Christie Linford GBR 9.92 (AR)
5 7 Fredericks Frank NAM 9.95 (AR)
6 2 Stewart Raymond JAM 9.96 (NR)
7 8 Da Silva Robson Caetano BRA 10.12
8 1 Surin Bruny CAN 10.14

That was 17 years ago…

2

there was a list of former Canadian greats but only two were sub-ten.

3

I just glanced over the post, but I completely agree with this point:

The problem with a lot of Canadian sprinters is that it is too easy to just “get by”, and people are happy with just getting by. People run their 10.30 or whatever, make a national team, get carded, and that is good enough for them. The truth is that is not good enough. If they want to be great, if they want to be remembered, they have to lead a career full of great accomplishments worth remembering.

4

well, 3 under 10.00…

5

Oh?? Remember, Canada has re-written history and so the third is officially a non-person.
Air-brushing history aside, Bruny says 10.17 is poor but four on his list seldom even approached that mark.
Nic ran faster than these four. Why shit on him? Anson Henry beat some world-ranked sprinters at the WCs. Why shit on him either?
The federation does a good enough job of screwing these guys without the need for any help from Bruny.

6

Perhaps someone who was present in Windsor could bring you up to speed as to what happened at last summer’s NCs to cause a 10.30s performance.
There hasn’t been a fuck-up like that since Canada finished off Percy Williams at the Empire Games in 1930. It’s a miracle that the whole final didn’t pull something.
After creating the fiasco that caused the performance, the federation punished Nic twice by denying him a space on the team for Osaka.
If you really work at it hard enough, you can make anyone run anything.
I remember when Ben won the Nationals in the exact same time as Marlies Gohr won hers- 10.79- with the same wind reading but in opposite directions! A few days later, away from the clutches of the Federation, he ran 10.25 and was a finalist in Zurich, Berlin, and Cologne as a junior. Of course, today he wouldn’t have proven them wrong cause he would have stayed home!

7

Yes please.

Canada dominated the sprinting world from 1994 to 1998, with house hold names such as Donovan Bailey, Bruny Surin, Glenroy Gilbert, Robert Esmie, Carlton Chambers and Peter Ogilvie.

rumor has it Canada had a bit of talent in the mid - late 80’s as well :stuck_out_tongue:

8

Bruny made comments using the same arguments on French sprinting on the press before Bruxelles this year… He was seen in Paris in September to visit a professional sprint group, i guess there are looking to hire a big name to give advices, and Bruny is probably looking for a coaching job as well. I don’t think they found agreement though since he has not showed up here again.

To give stats regarding how hard it is to break 10.10, Bruny didnt do it before he was 24 (in 1991), Collins not before he was 25 (in 2001), both running their first WC final in the same years.

9

I figured as much.
Bruny is aiding and abetting a public misdirection of blame to the athletes from the real culprits who Bruny didn’t have to deal with coming up.
Too much support Bruny says? Anson ran 10.11after loosing his card while lower level athletes kept theirs.
Bruny also knows Nic isn’t supported any more, but this website is really not the place for laying blame. I hope it will remain a place to find answers. What can be done to help them?

10

They could start by firing all the ‘dead wood’ at Athletics Canada and redirecting funding to programs that actually help the athletes reach standards and place well in major competitions.

If AC was suddenly disinvented, how would things be different? There would be no difference. Athletes would still pay their own travel to competitions (like they do now) and coaches like me would still coach.

We have a guy that heads our Provincial track and field federation who has been their for over 20 years and has done nothing to promote the sport, foster growth and development at the grassroots level and help our elite athletes. He’s just sitting on a paycheck and waiting to retire. All of our meets have the 100m running into a headwind, we have no indoor track (Kamloops now has one, but who wants to drive there during the winter), there is no good coaching education out there for elementary school and high school kids, and the participation numbers in Track and Field are dropping off at a steady rate.

Unfortunately, we have to wait for people to retire or die before we can hope for change.

11

Bruny looking for a coaching job?

I think its a rather false assumption to believe that because he ran very fast, therefore he will have the same talent for coaching. Instructing others on how to run fast requires additional skills & knowledge that your not just born with.

Frankly the amount of sanctimonious shit that comes from retired sprint stars makes it clear for me, that in large their lucky idiots. Who where born with the right genes & had the right support structures around them.

12

I don’t like the way he’s talking here but I think he could do a good job coaching because he’s had both good and bad coaching along the way and he must have a pretty good feeling for what works and what doesn’t.
Getting a coaching position this way could be a ‘Pyrrhic victory’ because he might kill the athletes he wants to lead, but he may be looking higher up the chain to some bureaucratic position paying more money.

13

“Elite by Association”
A condition whereby someone thinks themselves as good as those they compete against, never to rise to the equal performance level.

14

Well, that’s obviously bullshit.

15

He stays because he caters to the loudest voices. There is no doubt certain distance dickheads spend their days bitching about the sprints and lobby to screw them cause they have no clue how to improve their own sorry performance. (you know exactly who I’m talking about as I know you’ve also witnessed the bizarre tamtrums).

16

huh, i never knew this, a lobbying to distance people hahaha. Probably why i notice so many freaking outdoor distance runner junkies. I swear sprinters are a rare species up here it seems.

17

remember, when candian sprinters to better than yanky sprinter, they never get the full
credit… ben still the man !!!

ciao

18

simple reason why Canada is failing to achieve world wide, they dont have the genes, no natural talent.

19

Canada is so multi-cultural, the entire countries genes are bad? haha, maybe your just playin…

If I had to guess, I beleive it’s just fewer athletes and coaches involved in track overall in comparision to the US. That makes the most sense. If we have 5 times less coaches and athletes involved, statistically, we will produce 5 times less elite athletes.

20

Pyrrhic victories are how coaches move up the chain down under. The king of Pyrrhic victories in Oz is now based in UK. I guess America may be his next stop.