HIGH ACHIEVERS: George Quarcoo on a sprinting mission with guide Segun Makinde

By Martin Cleary

Visually-impaired sprinter George Quarcoo is on a mission.

And the Eclipse Track and Field Inc (Bowmanville) athlete is halfway to achieving his goal, which had its beginning way back in 2018.

Running side-by-side with Toronto-based guide Segun Makinde of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club, Quarcoo qualified Wednesday for the men’s T11/12 100-metre final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. The gold-medal race is scheduled for Thursday.

Quarcoo and Makinde, who have been working in an athletic partnership for just more than a year, placed second in the second of two heats with a wind-aided time of 11.17 seconds. The wind was barely over the allowable 2.0 metres per second at 2.5.

Running in lane five with Makinde slightly behind him on his left, Quarcoo was one of two runners in his heat with a guide. Quarcoo, who doesn’t have any sight, needed to wear a blindfold as part of his classification’s race requirements. Two of his competitors ran solo as they had some vision.

In the final, Quarcoo and Makinde will battle with Jaco Smit of South Africa, Zachary Shaw of England and Masala Makatu of South Africa.

“It went well,” Makinde said in a phone interview with High Achievers. “George did a good job of executing his race plan. There were some nerves at the beginning, but he came back at the end.

“It was a good run. At the end of the day, you can’t complain.”

By reaching the final, Quarcoo has given himself a chance to finish his long-term Commonwealth Games assignment, something he couldn’t do at the 2018 Games, when he tore a leg quad muscle during the men’s 100-metre semifinal.

“He’s for sure on a mission to redeem his 2018 unfortunate circumstances and go for a medal,” Makinde added. “For me, being at the Commonwealth Games is not new (two-time competitor). I walked George though it, settled his nerves and reminded him of what we have done in training.

“He felt good and ready to rock. George is on a mission. The goal (Wednesday) was to make sure we finished in one piece and healthy so we can compete for the potential of winning a medal, a personal best or whatever comes.”

Makinde, a two-time Olympian, has a gut feeling Quarcoo could surpass his personal best of 11.14 seconds and possibly dip under 11 seconds in the Games’ final.

“This year, he has been averaging times around 11.3 and 11.2 seconds. He’s on the cusp for something big. When you keep running the same times, it means something is happening,” he added.

Makinde’s coaching strategy also includes convincing Quarcoo he can break the 11-second barrier. At 35, Makinde can still run 10.5 seconds for the 100 metres and he hopes something like that gets Quarcoo believing the next level is possible and soon.

“He has all the tools to do it,” Makinde explained. “It’s a matter of believing it, if an opportunity shows up. I train with him and he’s right there.”

David Moulongou entered his first major international athletics championship with his Ottawa Lions club coach Normand Seguin in his camp.

It helped him significantly prepare for his 400-metre hurdles heat. But in the end there wasn’t enough magic provided by Seguin’s presence, which came at his own cost, to get the 23-year-old Moulongou around the track fast enough to qualify for the final.

Moulongou crossed the finish line in sixth place in 51 seconds flat during the third and final heat. But he was later elevated to fifth place, when England’s Joshua Faulds was disqualified.

“Honestly, I think I could have done better, but I’m proud of my effort,” Moulongou told High Achievers in a phone interview. “I felt as comfortable as one could be in his first international championship. We’ll go and find what went wrong.

“Comfortable is very relative. Three years from now, I’ll say the opposite.”

Despite the second slowest reaction time of 0.193 seconds coming out of the starting blocks for his heat, his time was ranked 16th best out of the 21 finishers.

In the women’s 800 metres semifinals, Maeliss Trapeau of the Ottawa Lions placed eighth in the opening heat in 2:02.42, which prevented her from reaching the final. She needed to finish in the top three to qualify automatically or have one of the two next fastest times. Her time placed her sixth on the time qualifying list.

Trapeau covered the opening 400 metres in 58.1 seconds, but she was unable to keep pace with the top runners. She needed to run a time of two minutes or faster to race for the medals.

In the men’s 200-metre heats, Ottawa’s Eliezer Adjibi of CANI Athletics withdrew from the 10th semi-final qualifier because of an injury.

Adjibi, who didn’t get past the heats in the 100 metres earlier this week, has been bothered by a left-arm injury. His recovery is going well and he’s still being considered for the men’s 4×100-metre relay semifinals and possible final on Saturday.

Canada didn’t have any sprinters advance to the 200-metre semifinals as veteran Brendon Rodney was disqualified in heat one.

Gatineau’s Audrey Leduc was given a bye through to the women’s 200-metre heats on Wednesday and will race in the third and final semifinal on Thursday. She placed sixth in the 100-metre final on Tuesday.

In swimming, Julie Brousseau concluded her debut Commonwealth Games by helping Canada qualify for the women’s 4×100-metre medley relay final. Kylie Masse (backstroke), Sophie Angus (breaststroke), Brousseau (butterfly) and Madison Kryger (freestyle) won their heat in 4:07.19, which ranked as the fifth-best time in the preliminary round.

For the final, Brousseau was replaced by Ella Jansen. Canada placed fourth in the final in 3:58.70, which was 0.12 seconds from the bronze medal won by South Africa.

Brousseau will now prepare to represent Canada at the Pan Pacific swimming championships in Irvine, California, Aug. 12-15.