Canadian hurdler Malik Metivier eyes final shot at Paris at Canadian Olympic trials

The strain is heavy, however the alternative is very large for Malik Metivier.

The Toronto hurdler will probably be competing at the Canadian monitor and subject Olympic trials that run from Wednesday via Sunday in Montreal.

Saturday would be the 25-year-old Metivier’s final shot at assembly the Olympic commonplace of 48.70 seconds within the 400-metre hurdles to go to Paris.

“You know (how) extreme hot and extreme cold, the burns feel the same? It’s like that,” he mentioned. “The stage of strain has simply been so excessive I virtually begin to simply really feel numb, you recognize? It made me flip to God much more.

“Right now, I’m simply loving it. Every day feels virtually like life or dying as a result of the Olympics, that’s the way you make your cash. I’ll actually have the ability to arrange the subsequent 4 years financially with simply qualifying. Without doing that, it’s going to be far more troublesome.

“For me, this is everything.”

Metivier was a silver medallist at the 2022 NCAA championships within the males’s 400 hurdles in his senior yr at Texas Tech earlier than encountering a string of dangerous luck.

A pulled hamstring at Canadian trials precipitated him to overlook the 2022 world championships and at the Commonwealth Games, he was disqualified from the final for a false begin.

Metivier has been battling accidents since then. He was recognized with a fracture in his proper foot in February 2023, however couldn’t depart the United States till his visa to coach there was processed. In order for Athletics Canada to cowl the surgical procedure and rehab, it needed to be completed in Canada.

Metivier bought his visa in October however was advised by surgeons that he now not wanted surgical procedure as a result of the bone had largely healed by then.

He joined coach Kurt Downes in Windsor, Ont., to start the method of coaching and rehab in preparation for a run at Paris. The pair tapped into sources from Athletics Canada and contacts of Downes himself to get Metivier as wholesome as potential.

“It was just shocking how easy it was to get back to just running fast,” Metivier mentioned. “I had loads of confidence earlier than the physique began breaking down these previous few weeks.

“Coach Kurt is sort of a magician, man. … He is aware of we are able to’t get loads of work in, so he makes it that all the things we do may be very particular, very intense and you may really feel your self getting higher each time you contact the monitor.

“So I think capability-wise, he’s gotten me ready. We just got to get to the finish line healthily and I’ll be all right.”

Metivier was presupposed to make his season debut in late April at the Drake Relays however had a hamstring situation. Then he needed to withdraw throughout his race on May 31 at the Edwin Moses Legends Meet in Atlanta on account of a lower-leg harm.

The debut ultimately got here on June 13 at the Edmonton Athletics Invitational the place he ran 49.07 seconds, his third-fastest time ever, regardless of it being his first race in virtually two years and feeling “80 per cent” from his newest harm situation.

“I think Malik is an interesting athlete,” Downes mentioned. “For the majority of his collegiate career, he was hurt. But when he’s been healthy, he’s been like a world beater, he’s been able to do some pretty phenomenal things when healthy.”

“He had a very sloppy race out in Edmonton and was able to run his third-fastest time ever at 49.07,” he added.

Metivier determined to give attention to his well being moderately than take an additional likelihood to race in Montreal final week to intention for the usual. But he’s additionally assured that he can obtain it at nationwide trials with additional time to enhance his well being.

“We have a lot of confidence in his ability to do it there (in Montreal),” Downes mentioned. “We just have to go out and get that race.”

“The pressure is going to be something that I’m really looking forward to because the chances of me making this team, mathematically are slim to none, but in my head it just almost makes it that much clearer in my mind that it’s going to happen,” Metivier added.

“I know myself and it’s not going to end poorly.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed June 25, 2024.