Track and Field Blogs - Reid Coolsaet

Worlds have come and gone and the highlight for me was Gary Reed's silver in the 800m today. Not only is the silver a great accomplishment for Gary but, it was a very exciting race that came down to one one-hundredth of a second!

The Canadian team took home two medals (one more than 2005); Perdita's silver in the 100m hurdles was the first one, (plus a gold in the women's demonstration 1500m wheelchair). So you can see why a medal is a big deal for us Canadians and especially one that didn't come from the sprints where we used to get a bunch of medals in the late 90's. Gary's 800m medal is the first in international competition for Canada since Bill Crother's silver in the 1964 Olympics behind Peter Snell.

Gary's international track career started off as a decathlete at the '99 Pan Am Juniors. He then concentrated on the 400m where he competed at the 2001 Worlds on the 4X400m team. He told me that at Worlds in 2001 he realised he had more of an "800 body-type". Consequently, he moved up in 2002 and had a 1:48 by the end of the year. As they say the rest is history, 1:45, 1:44-high, 1:44-low and then a 1:43.93 in 2006. All the while training and living in Canada. Gary is a very focused and serious athlete, a hilarious guy off the track (great Chapelle impressions) and has a great last name too. Its awesome to see him have this success and there is surely more to come.