August 14, 2000
(INDIANAPOLIS)--The Indiana Invaders saw an impressive performance out of club member Kelly French in the 2000 Canadian Track & Field Championships held at Centennial Stadium on Saturday, July 12th in Victoria, British Columbia. French's PR wraps up her best season ever with a near 7 second improvement at 1500 meters.

"Kelly faced a pre-race dilemma with a 4:07 athlete in the field versus a handful of sub-4:20 types and the possibilities that the race goes out too fast with the field chasing the class of the field in Leah Pells or too slow if the field ignored Pells and raced for places in typical championship type tactical race that ends in a kickers race. She kept her head and dealt with Pells running conservatively early by putting herself in a good tactical position and not letting the pace lag too much in the favor of the kickers," said Invaders Head Coach Chris Buhler.

Buhler added, "Kelly French is a great example to others of what the possibilities are within our environment. She has come into our setting with a simple mentality of excepting nothing short of competitive excellence and then letting things like personal best times take care of themselves. French now is free to think about competing at the next level."

Canadian Olympic Trials Top 5 in the 1500 meters:

1 Pells, Leah           4:13.27      
2 Sullivan, Krestena    4:16.89      
3 Douma, Carmen         4:20.14      
4 French, Kelly         4:25.05
5 Collins, Jeanette     4:26.35