LONDON - Gavin Smellie will be the third and final former Hilltopper to compete in the 2012 London Olympic Games, as he runs a leg of the 4X100 relay for Canada on Friday.
Smellie and his Canadian teammates are slated to run the preliminary round at 1:45 p.m. (CT), with the finals set for Saturday at 3:00 p.m. (CT).
The Etobicoke, Ontario native isn't far removed from a stellar career at WKU. Smellie competed for the Hilltoppers from 2006-2010 while collecting numerous accolades, most notably All-America honors in 2008 and 2009.
WKU track and field head coach Erik Jenkins, who served as the Hilltopper's recruiting coordinator upon Smellie's arrival, recalls knowing immediately he had a transcendent athlete when Smellie commited to the Hill.
"When I went to recruit Gavin, my meeting with him was right in between a Pac 10 school and an SEC school," said Jenkins. "When he chose WKU I knew we had something really special."
Special may have been an understatement.
Smellie was an All-Sun Belt Conference honoree on 18 different occasions during his career, including four times in the outdoor 100-meters, three times in the outdoor 200-meters, three times in the indoor 200-meters and three more times in the 4X100-meter outdoor relay. He was a Sun Belt Champion during 10 of the 18 instances, while being named the Most Outstanding Track Performer at the 2008 and 2009 Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
"He was the ultimate team player," said Jenkins. "A very disciplined kid, an extremely hard worker and very coachable. He's just a good, all-around guy."
Track is an individual sport for the most part, but many of Smellie's accomplishments came in relay competition.
Of his 10 Sun Belt Championships, four of them were on relays. While he was a part of three outdoor relay championships from 2008-2009, it was the 4X400 indoor relay during the 2008 season that left the biggest mark in the record books. Smellie, along with Alexander Larin, Romanie McKay and Terrill McCombs, ran the relay in a WKU-record time of 3:07.61 on their way to All-America honors.
In 2009, Smellie added another All-America honor to his resume, this time in the outdoor 200-meters with a time of 20.73 seconds.
"Our international kids have already seen the world by the time they get here," said Jenkins. "They've competed against some of the best in the world and that helps a lot. It was no different with Gavin. He came here and he performed on a very high level."
"He bought into our system and it worked well for both of us. Gavin is the one who put WKU sprinting on the national-level map."
Smellie is just one of two Hilltopper sprinters to earn individual All-America honors, and this weekend he'll have a chance to become the second WKU graduate to earn an Olympic medal in the London Games.
Claire Donahue, a 2011 graduate, earned gold on the United States 4X100 medley relay in the pool last Saturday.
The Canadian relay is seeded 11th out of 16 preliminary competitors. The top eight finishers during preliminaries advance to Saturday's finals. Despite being the 11th seed, Canada's 38.64 qualifying time has them just over a second behind Jamaica's top-seeded time of 37.56.
"Canada is always going to have a chance to medal," said Jenkins. "For Gavin to have that chance, it's a major accomplishment. He dedicated himself to this dream. I'm happy for him."
