She may be the other hurdler from the GTA's eastern suburbs, but Priscilla Lopes doesn't run from anyone's shadow.
An eventful few months behind her, the budding track star from Whitby is looking for a big finish to the 2007 season.
After that, Lopes plans to charge ahead to Beijing for next summer's Olympics, where she hopes to challenge Pickering's Perdita Felicien and the rest of the world's best.
"I don't look at it being in anybody's shadow, I don't care who has done what," Lopes said yesterday at the Royal York Hotel for the launch of the Patrons of Sport fund-raising initiative of the Canadian Athletes Now Fund.
"I beat Perdita indoors this winter, I can do it again. Anybody can go out there and be dethroned."
Like Felicien and Edmonton's Angela Whyte, Lopes is off to Japan next week to prepare for the world championship.
And the former Nebraska star is hoping to have the type of breakthrough Felicien did four years ago when she captured the world title in Paris.
"I'm not holding anything back," Lopes said. "I'm looking to make it to the podium both at the worlds and the Olympics, no question about that."
That she is even running is an accomplishment given the anguish she endured on a long flight home from South America a few months back.
After running a solid 12.64 at a meet in Brazil, Lopes was in agony. But rather than see a doctor on the other side of the hemisphere, she suffered on the ride home, where she immediately had surgery to remove a cyst on her ovary.
"I didn't want anybody to know the pain I was in," Lopes said. "I didn't want to have surgery down there.
"But that's all behind me. I feel confident I can run some big races before the summer is out."
NO SALE HERE
Senators owner Eugene Melnyk doesn't quite get the recent rash of NHL teams that have went up on the sales block. But as a businessman, he has a hint.
"What's happening is people have gone through seven, eight, nine or 10 years of ownership ... I don't know if age is a factor (with the owners)," Melnyk said yesterday of recent deals involving the Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators. "A lot of these teams were worth half of what they are selling for now. Some people might just be cashing in."
The founder of pharmaceutical giant Biovail doesn't plan to join the profit-taking fray any time soon, however.
"I know one team that's not for sale," Melnyk said. "It happens to be just east of Toronto. That team is not for sale and it's not even worth somebody making a phone call."
FOR THE RECORD
There may be some who believe Damon Allen's record-setting career is done, but don't count his coach and friend Mike (Pinball) Clemons among that gloomy group.
"I will choose not to bury him," Clemons said this week. "I'm not a funeral director. I will simply celebrate who he is for what he has done."
Still, with the status of his toe injury unclear -- reports suggest Allen could be out for as many as four to six weeks -- the possibility at least exists that he may never return.
With that in mind, every pass he completed this season added to his record as pro football's most prolific passer. With 492 yards thus far, Allen's mark now stands at 72,381.
SORE HEAD GAMES
Apparently, season-ending concussions aren't limited to the high contact sports such as football and hockey. Woodbine apprentice jockey Michelle Rainford could have her promising career in doubt after two concussions from spills have forced her to pack it in for the rest of the season.
"Basically, (my doctor) said I shouldn't be doing anything for another 10 weeks and that's the best-case scenario," Rainford told the Daily Racing Form.
"After all that time off, it would take me a good month to get ready."
LONGLEY ALSO HEARS ...
An interested observer at yesterday's Patron of Sport announcement was Roots founder Michael Budman. Budman was quick to congratulate Eugene Melnyk for his $1 million donation and offered his support. Budman, of course, was once in partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee before that organization shifted its business to The Bay after the 2004 Summer Olympics ... In an effort to jumpstart his injury-riddled unit, Argos offensive coordinator Steve Buratto has moved from the field to the press box to call plays ... Not going out on much of a limb here, but don't you get the impression the player of the week and the outstanding Canadian of the week honours won by Hamilton's Jesse Lumsden are just the beginning ... Primetime Sports on the Fan is by far the most entertaining and provocative three hours of sports radio in the city and thus host Bob McCown has no reason to feel threatened by the competition. But for the first time in a long time he has some from Bill Watters and Jeff Marek, who have switched to drivetime on AM640 ... TSN has all four rounds of the PGA Championship on all of its various platforms including broadband internet ... Melnyk showed off what he describes as the world's most expensive bookmark yesterday: an unused ticket for the men's hockey gold medal game at the Torino Olympics ... What's this we hear about many in the Canadian track and field community disgusted at Edmonton's Tyler Christopher's suck attack in the 400-metre final at the Pan Am Games? ... Last week's dramatic Argos-Als overtime game in Montreal delivered TSN its highest audience of the season, 399,000. The audience soared to 583,000 during overtime ... In honour of their final Friday night home date of the season, the Argos are offering up $5 seats for the 500 section tomorrow.
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