Gail Devers has company as an impressive masters sprinter on Friday. Up at the Knights of Columbus Saskatchewan Indoor Games in Saskatoon, 36-year-old Jeff Laynes competed in the 50-meter dash. Under the headline “Quick Nic / Macrozonaris gives another dashing performance at Games,” Dustin Munroe of the StarPhoenix newspaper shares an interesting story about the long-running rivalry of an American and Canadian. I first wrote about Jeff last May. (Jeff kicked off his season Jan. 20 with a 60-meter victory in 6.75 seconds in Boise, Idaho, bettering the listed M35 American indoor record of 6.98 by Mitchell Lovett in 1998.)

Here’s the full article:
Mac is back and he’s ready to attack the track.
Nicolas Macrozonaris of Laval, Que., successfully defended his 50-metre title at the 42nd annual Knights of Columbus Saskatchewan Indoor Games on Friday at the Field House. Macrozonaris was timed in 5.77 seconds, 6-10ths ahead of second place Preston Perry of the United States.
Macrozonaris has locked down the 50m event at the K of C Games, winning five times in the past six years.
In 2001, he competed in his first K of C Games, losing in the 50 to Jeff Laynes. Ever since, the 50 and 60m has been a Laynes vs. Macrozonaris grudge match. Laynes ended Macrozonaris’s two-year 60m winning streak last year.
“We bring the best out of both of us,” Macrozonaris said. “I love having guys like Laynes here because it makes it very competitive.”
Laynes is 10 years Macrozonaris’s senior at the age of 36.
Macrozonaris’s resume doesn’t read like that of someone who is only 26. He is a two-time Olympian, three-time Canadian outdoor 100m champion and the fastest man to have run the 50 at the K of C Games with the 5.69 he clocked in 2002.
It hasn’t all been glory, though.
A lost year to injury, years of battling Athletics Canada to secure support and funding, and the rigorous demands of being an Olympic-calibre athlete have tested his resolve.
“There’s competition, lots of work on the track and in the weight room,” he said. “There’s lots of travelling, a lot of hope, because I want to do good. It can all be very hard on an athlete. Mentally, physically and emotionally it is exhausting.”
Still, he wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“I feel good. I’m in good shape. I’m running well and training is going great. I’m happy and I will continue to do track and field for a very long time.”
As an elite sprinter, the Olympics remain the main goal for Macrozonaris. He got his feet wet at the Games in 2000 in Sydney. In 2004, he got the opportunity of a lifetime. A Greek descendent with strong family roots in the country, he competed in front of his parents in the Athens Games.
“Overall, it was a great, great experience,” he said. “It is something that very few people get to experience in this world.”
Macrozonaris is hungry for another crack at the Olympics. He was inspired to get into after watching Donovan Bailey capture the 100m gold in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
“I’m Canadian champion. I’m ranked No. 1 in the country. I want to take advantage of this, be the best I can be and run the Olympics,” he said. “My physical prime is approaching, I feel like now I can compete with the best in the world and I actually have a chance to bring home a medal.”
Saskatoon track fans have another chance to watch Macrozonaris burn up the track as he goes for his third K of C Games 60m title in the Sask Tel Invitational men’s 60m today at 2:45 p.m.