Adrienne Power has shone brightly many times on the national stage, but was waiting for that international breakthrough.
Well, wait no more.
The 28-year-old East Jeddore sprinter did Canada and Nova Scotia proud yesterday by winning bronze in the 200m women’s final at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
“I’m so excited. You have no idea,” Power told Metro Halifax after the race. “I’m on Cloud 9 — definitely.”
A three-time Canadian champion, Power’s national success hadn’t translated into strong results internationally until yesterday.
She hadn’t even made an international final before — something she finally made good on by finishing third in her Commonwealth Games semifinal Sunday.
Then, in yesterday’s final, Power was seventh with about 50 metres to go, but found another gear and ran past four competitors to grab the final podium position.
Her time was 23:52 seconds.
“I completely hit the ground as hard as I could for 50 metres,” Power said. “I’m glad I had that huge sprint at the end.”
Power explained that in past international events, she would come out of the blocks too hard and run out of the gas. In this race, she followed “her race plan” and saved the best for last.
“This Games is a huge mental barrier broken,” the 2008 Olympian proclaimed. “Now I know I can do my own race plan and be confident in it and be competitive with the other girls on an international level.”
