Wednesday, March 1, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER O AKVlLLg i C £"' i* Dt See m e before yo u ( ^ u g a T ^ ig k t Ron Marlow (^ a town Centre fl Friday, Mar. 3rd, 10pm SK IP T R A C E R Friday, Mar. 10th, 10pm NITE FLY 8 4 5 -7 5 7 5 · Dorm a qew S f n r t s M 'e d m d a y G l e n l e v e n C hrys CHRY SLER DODGE · | E E P ** 844-8703 2388 Royal Windsor Du, 845-7575 An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON Phone:845-3824, ext 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail:nnelson@haltonsearch.com D onovan Bailey m ade a m uch publicized return to C opps C oliseum Friday night for the H am ilton Spectator Indoor G am es. LEFT PHOTO: Bailey charges to a second place finish in the ch am pionship final. M IDD LE PHOTO: o ff to a good start, w hich is not one o f his strengths, Bailey is disappointed w hen it turns out to be a false start. T he com petitor in the other line is Troy D os Santos w ho w on the cham pionship race. R IG H T PHOTO: Bailey w arm s up for the com petition w hile an unidentified com petitor appears to give him the look-over. Bailey: sights set on Sydney hom e town fans. "All my fam ily's here. M y frien d 's are all here. W e're going up to my restaurant W hispers follow D onovan Bailey (Philthy M cN asty's) on the M ountain ... around. "So, yeah, I m ean it's great. A lot o f Is he w ashed up? C an he do it again? kids are here ... kids from my high school, It's som ething he feeds o ff of. from my college, all those people that "I love that. I think th a t's fine," he said d o n 't really get to see m e at all because m om ents after his second place finish in I'm training away. Friday night's 50m race at C opps "It gives me an opportunity for them to C oliseum in H am ilton. com e out here and get autographs, pic "W hat it enables m e to do is train quiet tures. It's really special for m e." ly in A ustin (Texas), to ju st correct a lot o f Bailey appreciated the turnout, but said m istakes that I 'm m aking in practice. he would like to see "the H am ilton "And then w hat will happen is one day, S pectator G am es packed again" as w ell as I'll show up." other inroads m ade in track and field. The race w as w on by upstart Troy D os "In C anada w e're trying to get the 2008 Santos o f N orth York in 5.76 seconds, ju st O lym pics and realistically w hat w e have tp ahead o f B ailey w ho clocked in tw o/one do is put on m ore international com peti hundreths o f a second slow er, at 5.78 sec tions in Toronto -- m aybe one indoor and onds. one outdoor and it has to be organized and Actually, B ailey w as a bit lucky to even done properly, so if I can help, I 'll do so." m ake the five-m an cham pionship final at The Copps m eet officially ended Copps, securing the fifth and final w ild B ailey's indoor season, one in w hich he card spot after a slow start o ff the blocks in w ent winless. his five-m an prelim inary heat. "I 've alw ays used indoors to w ork on Still, Bailey w as quick to see the posi things I need to do outdoors. A nd this is no tive, particularly w ith his acceleration. Photo by Barrie Erskine different this year. I m ean, I think that I'm "I think m ore than anything, in the com ing back a long way. W hat I have to D onovan Bailey relaxing on his own hom e turf, at Copps heats w hat I w as very happy for is that I do is ju s t continue w orking at it. C oliseum on Friday night. cam e out o f the blocks dead last and I was "I know exactly w here I am today and I able to accelerate. also know all the m istakes I am m aking. "M y first 30m is som ething I've been w ork "I m ean it's 50 m etres." "So I realize w hat I need to do is ju s t be ing on since the day I started track so w hat I 'm If it w ere an outdoor 100 m etre race, he patient. I m ean th at's one o f the things I never trying to do is get in the blocks and be consispointed out, "I still have 50m to go ... had, and Dan (longtim e coach Dan Pfaff) keeps . tent out o f it." "M y acceleration is really w hat my strength telling me th at's all I have to do. Bailey, not surprisingly, also enjoyed the rare o f my race has alw ays been -- my m iddle 40m. "From a physical standpoint I'm ju st as -- or chance to lace up the A dida sneakers before the BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR By Norm Nelson faster -- than I was in 1996. So I have to k eep " w orking at it." T he problem , he said, is that h e 's m aking "tons and tons o f very sm all m istakes." "N ot accelerating out o f the blocks, not dri ving out o f the blocks, not relaxing w hen I get into my second phase ... "T here are a lot o f things. All those little * things they add up, you know, the l/1 0 0 0 s o f a I second the 1/10th o f a second really drop o ff - 4 or add on -- if you do them right or do them * w rong." W hat it boils dow n to, he said, is "m uscle · m em ory." "T he reason why I w as probably consistent I over the years is I continued to run and I contin ued to be consistent at the things I did good.": r T hat all ended with his serious A chilles \ ; Tendon injury, w hich has ended the careers o f . o ther sprinters. "W hen I had the injury I did nothing. So my^ entire body, or the one side o f m y body, I had to retrain it. I had to relearn everything that I d id ,; so it w as alm ost like starting from scratch." ; W hat he is w orking tow ards, he said, "is just; getting back the consistency w here I'm actu ally d oing things like clockw ork, like I do in prac- · tice every day. " But the races are like my practices are. Som e days I have am azing practices. O ther days, you know it's ju s t one o f those things." ' Physically, h e's back, but m entally ... not quite, he conceded. "Just to retrain my body again takes a lot."! F or instance ... "Just balancing. If I'm accelerating out o f the * (See 'Bailey' page D3) HUG E TO UR N EY: the Oakville Hornets'hosted a huge hockey tourna ment over the weekend with upwards of 1400 players on 90 teams competing in 15 divisions ranging from tyke to intermediate, in both recreational and rep divisions. Check a future edition of the Beaver for a recap. ABOVE PHOTO: the tourney skills competition is traditionally sponsored by the Toronto Maple Leafs who this year sent a very skilled NHL-great, Bob Nevin. He spent the first three and a half years with the Leafs before being traded to the New York Rangers where he spent the majority of his career. Getting his autograph, here, are Hornets players Shanna Cooke and Lindsay Stuart. RIGHT PHOTO: Bob Nevin, no doubt, appreciated the hustle shown by this Oakville Hornet player (yellow jersey) in a Hornet novice house league game early on in the tourney.