Angela Whyte: Canada's other hurdler

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Story content

• Both battling injuries
• Everything focused on Beijing
• Sidelines graduate studies

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Its been seven years since Angela Whyte won her solitary Canadian 100m hurdles title yet she has since blossomed into a consistent international performer.

A sixth place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics and an eighth place at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka last August have carved her a strong position in the competitive womens hurdles event. Her progression, on paper at least, points to another breakthrough.

The trouble is that the Edmonton native has been running in the shadows of the phenomenal Perdita Felicien, who in addition to winning world championships has won the past six national titles. Whyte has been runner-up five times.

"Perdita is an awesome competitor," she says, "I have considered myself The Other One. Even after Athens, where I made a pretty good jump in the hurdling world, nobody could care. The big story was what happened to Perdita.

"It was an awful thing to happen at the Olympics but, at the same time, I was on this high just by even making the final, because nobody thought of me. Its been difficult but, at the same time, I have to understand that I have to do bigger and better things."

Both battling injuries

Whyte and Felicien are now locked in a battle to overcome injuries and be ready for the Beijing Olympics.

"I am actually getting treatment out here in Vancouver with (chiropractor) Dr. Wilbur Kelsick," Whyte says. "After the world indoors we figured it may be an idea to get my knee scoped and we got that done. Now I am trying to rehab it back to where I can train hard.

"I am not sprinting and I am not hurdling. I can do strides but I havent tried sprinting yet."

Dr. Bob McCormack, the Canadian team doctor at the Athens Olympics,performed the operation, which involves scraping a degenerative knee cartilage. Whyte says its been a problem since she was in elementary school. The operation was meant to improve her mobility and reduce the pain she suffered during training.

"At times I couldnt really do block starts because it would aggravate the knee and cause it to swell," she explains.

With only three months remaining until the Games Whyte is obviously concerned.

Everything focused on Beijing

"The goal changes every single day," she says. "The more I get behind the more I have to just have to push everything forward. I am going to be at the trials. How I perform? It depends. Ultimately everything is being focused towards Beijing.

"If I can get some meets in before, great, but I am not holding my breath.The more I see other athletes competing and I see their results, and the more I am not doing what I like to do, the more I get discouraged."

A year ago, Whyte ran a personal best time of 12.63 seconds, the fourth fastest ever by a Canadian. She followed this up in Osaka with two performances within three one-hundredths of her best. To meet the Canadian Olympic Commitees selection criteria she must only finish in the top four at the trials July 6 and meet a minimum standard of 13.11 seconds. That should be well within reach.

"To be honest, qualifying is not my concern," she says, "If I cant run 12.6 seconds and I am not prepared to run 12.5 or 12.4, I am not happy. So qualifying is not a concern for me. If I cant run well above qualifying standard like 12.5 I wouldnt say its a lost cause but its going to be pretty disappointing."

Sidelines graduate studies

Felicien holds the Canadian record of 12.46 seconds set in Eugene, Oregon, in June 2004.

Whyte has temporarily put aside her graduate studies at the University of Idaho to concentrate on training. At the moment she is taking a research credit only before she decides what her thesis in sports psychology should be. Friends in Idaho joke she practically lives at the Kibbi Dome, the universitys athletics complex. Whyte is also an assistant coach at the school.

If she is unable to beat her best in time for the Olympics it would be a shame, but she has considered the consequences.

"I will continue," she says. "I have some goals for 2012 and at 32 I don't think its going to be something unattainable."