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Lalonde looks to burn up track at Inferno

National 3000m steeplechase record holder will compete in 1,500m race.
20160622 lalonde
Geneviève Lalonde, left, of Guelph's Speed River Track and Field Club leads the pack during a women's 1,500-metres race at the club's twilight meet earlier this month. The national record holder in the 3,000m steeplechase, Lalonde is to run in the 1,500m in the Speed River New Balance Inferno Saturday night at Alumni Stadium. Rob Massey for GuelphToday

There'll be no hurdles for Guelph's Geneviève Lalonde at the Speed River New Balance Inferno track and field meet Saturday night.

The fastest Canadian woman ever in the 3,000-metre steeplechase, Lalonde will be racing in the 1,500 metres at the Inferno.

"We were going to do steeplechase, but at this point of the season it doesn't make sense to do one right before trials," she said.

The 24-year-old Lalonde, who was born in Montreal and grew up in Moncton, is a master’s student at the University of Guelph and a member of the Speed River Track and Field Club. She'll be out to nail down a spot on the Canadian team for this year's Rio Olympics at the national trials at Edmonton July 7-10.

She enters the Inferno, the fourth event of the five-meet National Track League schedule, off a pair of top-four finishes in 1,500m races in the first two meets of the league: The Harry Jerome Track Classic at Vancouver Friday and the Victoria Track Classic Sunday.

"That was basically just trying to get the feeling of racing back to back," Lalonde said. "In Rio, the prelims and the finals will be one day apart so if I'm going to run the fastest I've ever run, I probably should have the feeling in my legs of what it's like to have the second race."

Lalonde became the national record holder in the 3,000m steeplechase late last month when she recorded a time of nine minutes, 32.17 seconds in finishing 10th in the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

"The Prefontaine Classic is amazing," she said. "I didn't expect to get in because it's such a high-profile meet. I was last-ranked on the start list by quite a margin, by a couple of seconds. I was stepping on the line with the fastest runners in the world. It was pretty nerve-wracking and I was pretty nervous heading into the race, especially since I did know that the Canadian record was on the line. It was no secret that that was what I was aiming for and I got it, just by a second."

While she did set the national mark, it wasn't a perfect race for Lalonde.

"I went out so fast, I was just kind of latched on and trying to hold on for as long as I could," she said. "In the middle section, I had a bit of a mental break where I just disassociated from it and that is something that we've been working really hard on, just trying to keep my head in the game the whole time."

Lalonde knows she'll have to keep her head in the race at the Olympic trials as there are five athletes with times under the qualifying standard, and the most Canada will send is three. It will likely be only two who go.

"It's a great group of women and they're all friends of mine," she said. "It's kind of hard when you're standing on the line because we all know that those spots are up for grabs and that we're all friends, but once you get into the race, things change a little bit."

Lalonde, though, likes her chances of racing in the Olympics.

"Right now I'm top ranked with the fastest two times and that definitely puts me in a really good position," she said. "(But) I definitely still want to go for the win."

The Inferno opens with the Downtown Road Mile Friday at 7:30 p.m., starting in front of City Hall. Saturday's action at Alumni Stadium is to begin at 7 p.m.


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