CHARLES ALLEN did yesterday what fellow Canadian Perdita Felicien painfully could not earlier in the week here at the Athens Olympic Stadium. He cleared the first hurdle.
It was the next nine in the men's 110-metre hurdles final that proved to be the Brampton resident's undoing, however.
Allen flattened each of those yesterday on his way to a sixth-place finish behind Xiang Liu of China, who won in an Olympic record time of 12.91.
MIRACULOUS
"This is a miracle," said Xiang, who won his country's first track medal and equalled the world record. "I'm proud not just for myself and for China but for Asia."
A surprise finalist, Allen came here primarily to run in the 4x100-metre relay. In the end, that may have cost him a shot at hurdles medal.
Just 80 minutes before the final, Allen ran the third leg in a weak Canadian effort in the opening round of the relay. The foursome finished seventh of eight and failed to advance to today's final.
"I had some trouble in my warmups, my hamstring was cramping up," Allen said. "It was probably from running in the relay.
"I was a little exhausted coming into the hurdles race. I tried to pull it together, but as I started racing over Hurdles 3 and 4 I could feel my hamstring pulling a little bit.
"I couldn't push it like I wanted to, so I had to play it safe and not get hurt."
Though he used running in the relays as an excuse for coming up short in the hurdles, Allen said he never considered not running in the team event.
"That was my job, I came here to run the relay," Allen said. "I'm disappointed we didn't qualify. We really came together as a team and were all on the same page."
They just weren't fast enough.
The Canadian time of 38.64 seconds was seventh best in a heat in which the top three advanced.
"We came here to get in the final," said Montreal native Nic Macrozonaris, who ran the opening leg. "We came her to compete. I think in my point of view we were a little bit too safe.
"We really wanted to push the zones and play with fire. I said I'd rather risk dropping the stick than finish dead last in the race."
It seems unlikely that Canada will end its medal drought in track, which dates back to 1996. Cambridge native Carmen Douma-Hussar, in the women's 1,500, is the last hope.