Headwind plays havoc on sprinter's dash

Sudbury sprinter Celine Loyer placed fourth in the womens 100-metre dash at the University of Toronto Twilight Series on Tuesday night at Varsity Stadium.

The College Boreal student ran into an unfortunate 20km headwind, but still managed a fourth place finish, according to coach David Case. Her next competition will be at the Asian Community Games in Toronto July 18 at York University.

"Unfortunately it has been a tough summer nationwide due to the bad weather. For sprinters, it has been horrible because we've usually been running into very strong headwinds and this pulls our times down,” Loyer said.

“There are still a lot of my colleagues trying to get standards for the world championships but it's been hard as the weather isn't helping. I'm looking forward to my next few competitions.”

Case said his athlete has had a good summer as far as competitions go.

"We just have to contend with a lot of bad weather, even in terms of training this summer it's been rough,” he said.

The Dharma Sports Science Group will be adding some new athletes to its ranks this summer, including former national team sprinter Don Pitter, and triple jump champion and former Olympian Tabia Charles.

“Don has a lot of great prospects for the 2010 season and is a fantastic sprinter to work with,” Case said. “He has a personal best time of 10.42. We got to work with one another in Florida this year.

“Tabia got a hold of me last winter for assistance in her speed and strength consultation and it has been a pleasure working with such a hard working and talented athlete.”