Unfinished business driving Bishop
Shot at medals in 800 on final day at worlds product of perseverance
LONDON— The Rio Olympics final was the finest 800 metres that Melissa Bishop had ever run. It was a Canadian record and not a thing went wrong in her race — except that she didn’t win a medal.
She finished fourth by a mere 0.13 seconds.
After 14 years of training she had expected that to be her last major race, but after she crossed the finish line she found she couldn’t just walk away from the track with that as her final result.
“As I look back on it, I see the power of the performance and how fast I actually ran. But in the moment, it was just extreme disappointment because I was so close to a medal,” Bishop said, speaking six months later when she’d found some perspective on her run.
“I was so close to realizing my Olympic dreams. All those years, all that hard work came down to that one moment, that one race, that one day to try and truly realize what I thought I was capable of, and that was a medal, and to fall that short I can’t describe the heartbreak.
“It’s not a good feeling, but it’s certainly something that fuels that fire and gets you going.”
Now, the 28-year-old from Eganville, Ont., is facing the challenge of building towards the 2020 Tokyo Games— for another chance at an Olympic medal — at a time when the field keeps speeding up even as she does.
She bettered her Rio time — and dropped the Canadian record to one minute and 57.01 seconds — only to finish fifth in a race last month in Monaco, against much of the same field she’ll race here Sunday evening at the world athletics championships.
That fast Monaco race, where South Africa’s Caster Semenya set the year’s best time of 1:55.27 — and was pushed far more than she’s accustomed to — included three national records and three personal or season’s bests, forecasting a thrilling final here.
Bishop won a silver medal at the 2015 world championships and she’s determined to find a way to win a medal again.
“I want to be on the podium all the time now, because it’s addicting to be on the top of the game,” she said last month at the Canadian championships when she secured her trip here.
But this time, Bishop is chasing a medal without her coach, Dennis Fairall, by her side on the training track and in the stands for her races.
Fairall is battling progressive supranuclear palsy, which makes walking hard and speaking even harder, so he does most of his communicating through text or email.
He’s been Bishop’s coach since she first arrived to run for his University of Windsor Lancers a decade ago, and this is the first major international meet he’s missed.
“It’s tough,” Bishop said after her semifinal here.
“I definitely miss his presence. To look over and not see him there, it’s hard. But I know he’s only a phone call away.”
Fairall may be watching from home in Windsor — cellphone close at hand — but his training and racing plans are here with Bishop. And so far, but for a wobble in the heats when Bishop was nearly tripped up from behind, it’s all gone as planned.
“Our focus has shifted a bit,” Fariall explained in an email on their training plans since Rio. “We are keying on the last 150 metres of the race, her ability to finish strong and hone her technique in deriving power at the end from her arms and legs.” That’s where it went wrong in Rio. Semenya, the gold medallist, was well out in front and Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba was set for silver, but Bishop was running in bronze-medal position until the final 50 metres. That’s when Kenya’s Margaret Wambui edged past her at the line to take the final spot on the podium.
The women’s 800 metres is at the centre of a gender controversy in sport with the IAAF, the governing body for track and field, currently before the international sports court attempting to reinstate its rules around women with hyperandrogenism, which means their bodies naturally produce high levels of testosterone.
Those rules would require women such as Semenya to undergo medically unnecessary surgery or take hormone therapy to reduce their testosterone levels in order to compete.
None of that will affect what Bishop has to do Sunday.
“You can’t control your competitors. You can only meet them with your best,” Fairall said.
And what could that mean here for Bishop? Coach and athlete are, as always, of one mind.
“Our hope for worlds is a medal and possibly a new Canadian record under 1.57. That is our optimal dream,” he said.