From the Canadian Press -

The world indoor track and field championships weren’t in Tyler Christopher’s plans when he sat down to chart out his preparations for the season. Now the sprinter from Chilliwack, B.C., finds himself the man to beat in the 400 metres at this weekend’s world indoor meet in Valencia, Spain, boasting the fastest time in the world and coming on the heels of a Canadian-record performance.

“We decided to do (the world indoors) because we found the fitness from my training was fairly good, it was where we wanted it to be,” Christopher said in a phone interview from Valencia.

Any doubts about Christopher’s fitness were quickly erased three weeks ago, when the 24-year-old shattered the Canadian record, running 45.80 seconds in Birmingham, England to clock the season’s fastest time.

“Tyler has had an excellent preparation period and is in the best condition ever for this time of the year,” said Kevin Tyler, Christopher’s Edmonton-based coach. “We felt the world indoor championships would be a great opportunity to end this first phase of training, and demonstrate these abilities.”

Christopher leads an eight-member Canadian team into the 12th world indoor championships, a meet many athletes are skipping to focus on this summer’s Beijing Olympics.

To Christopher though, a podium performance in Spain would be the perfect way to propel him into the final runup to Beijing.

“It’s always nice to peak for a major competition, and it kind of put a break in between my training,” he said. “It sets up the outdoor season a little better.”

The Canadian sprinter won bronze at the world outdoor championships in 2005, then finished sixth at the worlds last summer in Osaka, Japan.

With the Olympics less than six months away, Christopher is optimistic about the what the upcoming season holds.

“Training is going good, I can’t complain at all, I had probably one of the best training camps I’ve ever had (earlier this winter in Florida),” he said. “I’m injury-free so far, there’s hasn’t been any nagging anything, so it’s great. It’s been a great year so far.”

Christopher’s stiffest challenge this weekend should come from Sweden’s Johan Wissman and Chris Brown of the Bahamas.

He’ll run three rounds, beginning with Friday’s heats. The final is slated for Sunday.

Canadian hurdlers Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Whitby, Ont., (No. 8 in the world this season) and Edmonton’s Angela Whyte (No. 9) also headline Canada’s team, which includes six athletes that competed at last summer’s world outdoors in Japan.

Also competing for Canada this weekend: Nicole Forrester of Toronto (women’s high jump), Mike Mason of Nanaimo, B.C., (men’s high jump), Dylan Armstrong of Kelowna, B.C., (shot put), Hilary Stellingwerff of Guelph, Ont., (women’s 1,500), and Megan Metcalfe of Edmonton (women’s 3,000).

A total of 159 countries will be represented in Valencia.