Denny Morrison Website

By George Johnson, Canwest Olympic Team; Canwest News Service;

February 27, 2010 3:06 AM

Denny Morrison loves getting under the hood. He lavishes time and money on his passion for cars, a 1991 black Dodge Stealth being among his prized possessions.

Knowing a thing or two about engines, then, Morrison's aware that he and his Canadian pursuit team may not have the piston-power of, say,

"But using that analogy,'' countered Morrison, "pistons in the engine -- sorry, being a car guy -- if one piston is way bigger than the other ones, how's it going to function?

"Is it going to be efficient?''

The Canadians certainly were more than that Friday, stealing a measure of the thunder from their female counterparts. Morrison, Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Grioux set back-to-back Olympic records -- a 3:42.38 in the quarter-final versus Italy, followed by a 3:42:22 in the semi against Norway -- that propels them into today's pursuit final against the Americans -- slayers of the favoured Dutch in the semis -- and guarantees a silver medal, the first by the long-track men at these Games

After the beating the men have been taking over a second Olympics with no individual medals, Friday's display of cohesion had to be reassuring.

"Totally,'' replied Morrison, "considering the trash talk about the men not performing and stuff. We're doing the best we can to prepare and it would be nice to win a gold medal for Canada on behalf of the male speed skaters.''

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