X-Men cross country AUS all star Lee McCarron recently competed at the Festival of Excellence international track and field meet held in Toronto. The meet was one of the largest ever held in Canada, and featured several world class track stars including current Olympic and world record 100m sprinter Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Canadian Olympic hurdlers Priscella Lopes-Schleip and Perdita Felicien.

McCarron, a native of Antigonish, NS, travelled to participate in the special exhibition 1500m race for CIS student-athletes. The reigning AUS fourth place finisher ran a time of 4:04.06 in 13th place. Allan Brett of Guelph won the race with a time of 3:48.46, followed by Toronto runner Michael Del Monte (3:49.85) and Rob Jackson (3:50.61), also from the University of Guelph. McCarron was the only AUS competitor amidst the field of 12 OUA and 1 QSSF runners.

Former X-Men cross country standout and 2008 Olympian Eric Gillis competed in the men’s 5000 meter event at the Festival of Excellence. He was the top Canadian, placing 5th overall amongst a field of 10 runners. Gillis completed the race in a time of 13:45.10. The winner was Saif Shaheen from Quatar at 13:22.70. Gillis was the lone Canadian competitor in the 10,000m event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

StFX and Dalhousie alumnus Leanna McLean was in Toronto for the meet but was unable to finish her event, the women’s mile. Former Dalhousie runner Geoff Harris placed 6th in the men’s 800m race with a time of 1:47.99.     

Triple Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt did not disappoint the crowd as he won the men’s 100m event with a time of 10.0 seconds, shy of his 9.69 world record mark. In the other high-profile race of the meet in the women’s 100m hurdles, Canadians Lopes-Schleip and Felicien finished one-two with times of 12:86 and 12:88, respectively.