Bruny delivered. As promised a few weeks ago, the Canadian sprint great today beat his country’s  M40  record for 50 meters — clocking a remarkable 6.15 (corrected from my earlier 6.12 error) seconds at McGill University to beat the listed record of 6.20. “I was really nervous,” Bruny said. “The first competition, you never know how your body is going to react. Last week I got a bit of an injury in my abductor muscle, so in the blocks I didn’t want to be too explosive. But I knew that if I pushed at about 90 per cent I could get it. I just hope that I’ll be healthy for my next competition, and then I can really shatter it.” Bruny told reporters he’s aiming for Troy Douglas’ M40 record of 6.78 in the 60. But don’t look for him at Kamloops worlds. “Maybe I’ll be there as a spectator, but not as a competitor,” Bruny said. “Running a race like this is one thing, but going to the world masters requires qualifying and a lot more preparation, serious preparation, and I’m not interested.”

Here’s the Canadian Press account:

MONTREAL — Bruny Surin is making a comeback to the world of track and field, but it is in the board room and not on the running track that the Olympic gold-medalist is hoping to have the biggest impact.

Surin, 42, was running his first competitive race in seven years Saturday at the McGill Open, establishing a new Canadian masters record of 6.15 seconds in the 50 metres for the 40-45 age group.

Though Surin has run at two Olympics and three world championships, he admits he had some butterflies in his stomach prior to the race.

“I was really nervous,” Surin said, huffing and puffing moments after crossing the finish line.

 “The first competition, you never know how your body is going to react. Last week I got a bit of an injury in my abductor muscle, so in the blocks I didn’t want to be too explosive. But I knew that if I pushed at about 90 per cent I could get it. I just hope that I’ll be healthy for my next competition, and then I can really shatter it.”

Surin said he hopes to run again in about a month’s time and he wants to eventually shoot for the world masters record of 6.78 seconds in the 60 metres. But he has no intention of competing internationally at the World Masters Championships.

“Maybe I’ll be there as a spectator, but not as a competitor,” Surin said. “Running a race like this is one thing, but going to the world masters requires qualifying and a lot more preparation, serious preparation, and I’m not interested.”

No, Surin’s interests lie more in helping to breathe some life back into a sport where Canada has seen its international profile fade in the 13 years since he helped his country win gold in the 4×100-metres at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Surin publicly criticized the Canadian sprinting program in August, saying it “was not dead, but it’s definitely sick.”

Earlier Saturday, Surin was named president of the Quebec Track and Field Federation, and he hopes his new role will serve as a springboard to a similar position at the national level so he can help cure that sickness.

His comments in August elicited angry reactions from across the Canadian track and field world. Four months later, Surin says he doesn’t regret anything he said.

“When you look at it in a politically correct perspective, it wasn’t the right thing to do,” Surin said. “But sometimes, when you keep repeating the same thing and you see nothing is changing, that becomes the only solution. I hope it will help bring changes.”

Surin said Canadian track and field missed a glorious opportunity to sell the sport to the country’s youth following that historic gold medal in Atlanta, and the program is suffering now as a result.

“There was a lot of hype, and that was the time to tell our youth that it was their turn to come and take over,” he said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t done.”

If there is one athlete that might have the potential to become another star that could serve as an attraction for kids, it could very well be Justin Darlington, who was also competing Saturday at McGill in the high jump and triple jump.

The Ajax, Ont., native is best known as perhaps the world’s best slam dunk artist, with his basketball exploits attracting hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. One of those viewers was Montreal-based track coach Daniel St-Hilaire, who reached out to Darlington last spring to pitch the idea of becoming a jumper.

Darlington, 21, moved to Montreal in September and enrolled at McGill University to train under St-Hilaire, and he is already among Canada’s best, finishing fifth at the last national championships without any formal training.

He says he is slowly getting used to the highly technical jumping of track and field after years of taking off with two feet for his high-flying dunks, but he hopes to be polished enough three years from now to be a factor at the 2012 Olympics in London.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a dream, but it’s a very big goal,” he said. “Now that I can see it, I really want it. But my dream would be to dunk at the NBA All-Star Game.”

With that potential cross-over appeal with young people, Darlington may very well become the perfect poster child that would make Surin’s job a little easier.