Eric Gillis: rising star

The Canadian Olympic track and field team is to be announced on Monday, July 7, following the national championships and trials in Windsor, Ontario. For Eric Gillis that day cant come soon enough.

The 28-year-old from Antigonish, N.S., has his fingers crossed that he has met the criteria set out by Athletics Canada to earn a spot in the 10,000m. He has completed the necessary "paperwork" just in case.

An Olympic berth would be a dream come true for Gillis, not to mention a boost for Canadas stagnant long distance running program.

At the Payton Jordan Invitational meet in Stanford, Calif., May 4, Gillis ran a personal-best time of 28:07.19. That betters the Olympic "B" standard, the minimum requirement for an Olympic entry, according to the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Rising star class

Gillis also won the Canadian 10,000m title for the second consecutive year, albeit in a lethargic time of 29:28.11. Now he must wait for the National Team Committee chaired by Martin Goulet, Athletics Canadas Chief High Performance Officer, to decide if he is worthy of a "rising star" classification. Thats a category set aside for athletes who havent achieved the A+" standard but who may benefit from the Olympic experience.

With his training partners from the Speed River Track Club in Guelph, Ont., Gillis is training as if he is Beijing bound.

"For the most part that is what my coach and I have been telling people,that we arent confirmed,but we are expecting that I am going, and so I keep training as if I am," he explains.

"Beijing is going to be an interesting race with the temperature being quite warm. But I expect to be in as good a shape or better than when I ran my B standard. I am hoping to improve on that fitness-wise but its not going to be a race to equate to a faster time because of the weather."

Clearly, the St Francis Xavier University graduate has no false aspirations. Achieving a top-20 finish in an event dominated by East African born runners representing Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and even Bahrain and Qatar, is incredibly difficult, yet that is what he has planned. No Canadian male has made the Olympic 10,000m final since Bruce Kidd in the 1964 Olympics.

Runs with dog

Since winning the Canadian Championship he has been running 150-160 kilometres a week with teammates including Reid Coolsaet and Tayler Milne. He has a 9-month-old Australian shepherd dog called Arkell who accompanies him on morning runs every other day.

With his coach Dave Scott-Thomas he has plotted the path to Beijing, which includes a 5,000m race in Heusden, Netherlands, and a 3,000m race in Belgium. These are races set up for those who cannot get into the IAAF Golden League and Grand Prix meets.

At present he has no major championship experience apart from three appearances for Canada at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

It was at a World University Cross Country competition where Gillis first met Scott-Thomas and his star athlete, Red Coolsaet. The pair invited the Nova Scotian to train with them in Guelph. Each summer while he studied human kinetics at university he would journey to southwestern Ontario for the summer. Finally, in 2006, he moved there permanently.

Although he has earned financial support through Sport Canadas carding program he chooses to work part time at a group home for adults with intellectual disabilities. But that is now all in the back of his mind. Stepping on the track inside Beijings Birds Nest stadium is foremost.