Taylor Milne of Guelph proved there were no lingering effects of a hard crash at the water jump in a race in California as he ran away with the Speed River New Balance Inferno men's 3,000-metre steeplechase at Alumni Stadium.
"I always seem to run well here, except the one time I fell," Milne said. "I was still running well, and I knew I could get it done tonight."
Milne set the Speed River New Balance Inferno track and field meet record, beating the previous mark he set two years ago by almost a second, as he won in 8:26.97. Milne was more than 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Antoine Thibeault.
"I've done it enough, but I've tried to break that habit a little bit the last couple of years," Milne said of running all alone in a race. "It's good to test yourself, but you lose that tactical edge so I've been trying not to do it as much last year and this year, but it had to be done tonight.'
"The Inferno was Milne's third race since the hard fall into the water at the Payton Jordan Invitational on May 1 left him with a dislocated shoulder. He will now concentrate on training for the Canadian Olympic Trials meet in Edmonton July 7 to 10. A finish in the top two will give him a spot on the Canadian team for August's Rio Olympics.
"I'll train and just work on gear changes," he said. "I'll just get ready."
Fellow Speed River New Balance Track and Field Club teammate and Olympic hopeful Eric Gillis also won at Alumni Stadium as he won the Canadian men's 10,000 metres championship for his second victory of the day.
"It felt good to do that," he said. "I just wanted to enjoy it and be a part of this tonight and I thought, what better way to be a part of it than to race it."
Gillis led a Speed River sweep of the top three in the morning's Scotiabank Waterfront 10K in Toronto with a time of 29:22.6 while Reid Coolsaet was second and Tristan Woodfine third.
"I do a 20K workout once a week or so," Gillis said of his usual marathon training. "The 20K is no different, but to do it spaced out and definitely quicker than marathon pace is a little different."
Gillis was timed at 29:00.93 in the night race in Guelph.
"It's a unique thing and I'll probably never do it in my life again," Gillis said. "The opportunity doesn't happen very often to have two quality races like that within driving distance. It was just a one-time thing and I wasn't putting any pressure on myself here tonight."
Gillis also won the national 10K title in 2008, the year he raced in the Beijing Olympics in that distance. He competed in the London Olympics in 2012 in the marathon and is hoping to race the marathon in the Rio Olympics.
Rachel Hannah won the Canadian women's 10K championship race at Alumni Stadium in 33:05.49, a pace that caused one third of the field to drop out.
Other winners at the Inferno were Karleigh Parker (women's pole vault), Randall Flimmons (men's long jump), Kelsey Balkwill (women's 400m hurdles), Khalil Parris (men's 400m hurdles), Amanda Eccleston (women's 800m), Robert Heppenstall (men's 800m), Tenaya Jones (women's 100m hurdles), Roger Valentin Iribarne (men's 110m hurdles), Rob Denault (men's 1,500m), Shannon Osika (women's 1,500m), Marissa Papaconstantinou (para women's 200m), Peter Snider (para meN's 200m), Kim Hyacinthe (women's 200m), Jeremy Dodson (men's 200m) and Jason Wilson (Downtown mile).
