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July 6, 2007 - Gaz de France Paris Golden League

Hilary gets World "A" standard in Paris

Each year the Gaz de France holds stage to many of the top world performances of the year. With the 70,000 capacity stadium, lively crowd and golden league status, it's not a wonder why.

Thus, this seemed like a suitable place for Hilary to aim for a fast time and take care of the Canadian "A" standard for the World Championships in Osaka. And on Saturday night, among a field that could very much resemble the Osaka final, Hilary did just that by running 4:05.69, which is also a new personal best and next year's Olympic "A" standard (she will still need to run two "B" standard next year to go to the Olympics).

Hilary explained after the race that this takes some weight off her shoulders. "The goal for this season has been to have the world standard going into Canadian Nationals," said Hilary. "And even though training has been going well and I knew I was capable of the time, my previous races weren't as fast as I hoped so I'm very happy that things came together in Paris. This makes it much easier to plan my preparation in the coming 6 or 7 weeks."

The next step for Hilary to secure a spot on the Canadian team to Osaka will be to place top-3 at the National Championships in Windsor on July 12-15th. But she will first race the Super Grand Prix in Lausanne July 10th, which she says will be exciting to race such a big competition where she lives and trains.

"In Paris I ran a pretty conservative or calculated race because I just wanted to get the time. Now I can have some fun in Lausanne and perhaps be a bit more risky to get a faster time. I'm also really looking forward to racing here because a lot of friends and family will be there to watch."

For full results of Paris, click here>>

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