Perdita Felicien says she is in the equation to earn a spot on Canadian track team heading to London Olympics

Hurdler Perdita Felicien can do the math.

The former world champion knows the challenge she faces to earn a spot on the Canadian track team going to this summer's Olympic Games in London.

"There is a lot more at stake,'' Felicien said after finishing third in the 100-metre hurdles at the Harry Jerome Track Classic in Burnaby, B.C., over the weekend.

Once the undisputed queen of Canadian hurdling, Felicien heads to the Canadian Track and Field Trials later this month in Calgary as one of six women who has reached the Olympic qualifying standard. Only three will get tickets to London. The best time Felicien has run so far this year is slower than four of the other women.

"If you do the math . . . it's like musical chairs,'' said Felicien. "Before you could name the three (women) that would make the team. The landscape has definitely changed.''

[Related: Dylan Armstrong doesn't disappoint at Harry Jerome]

If the 31-year-old from Pickering, Ont., is feeling any stress she hides it well. Felicien was energetic and full of smiles even though her time of 12.96 seconds at the Jerome meet was 0.20 seconds slower than Jessica Zelinka of London, Ont.

"No one cares what you've done before the nationals,'' she said. "No one is giving you a medal for winning a meet in Europe. It's what you do on that day.

"I feel like I've been here a lot of times. I've dealt with the highest level of pressure, the Olympic Games. I believe in myself. When you focus on the outside things, then you kind of get distracted. I know how I have trained, how I have prepared. I know what I am capable of. I take hope in that.''

The Olympics haven't been kind to Felicien. She was a gold-medal favourite at the 2004 Games in Athens but suffered a disastrous fall. A foot injury kept her from competing in Beijing four years later.

Her training this year has been hampered by an Achilles tendon problem which she calls "a real beeatch.'' That caused her to miss much of the indoor season.

"To not have an indoor season, which I thrive on, I totally missed that,'' Felicien said. "While the other girls are out here hurdling and racing, I'm in a (swimming) pool. That is totally demoralizing for someone like me who likes to get on the track, jump the hurdles, and feel myself move.''

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Whitby, Ont., a bronze medallist in Beijing, has the fastest time for a Canadian women hurdler this year after being clocked in 12.64 seconds. Phylicia George of Scarborough, Ont., has run 12.79, and Nikkita Holder of East York, Ont., 12.84. Felicien and Edmonton's Angela Whyte, who placed sixth at the Athens Olympics, have been timed in 12.95.

[Related: Mary Spencer eagerly awaiting news of her Olympic fate]

Zelinka won the Jerome Meet in a career-best 12.76 which also met the Olympic qualifying standard. She is a heptathlete and does not plan to run the hurdles at London.

London could be Felicien's last chance for the Olympic medal that twice has been snatched away from her. The disappointment she has suffered in the past has only made her stronger.

"The hurdles are truly a metaphor for life,'' she said. "I have to overcome 10 obstacles to get to the finish line.

"I'm a championship runner. You get me in a championship setting, when things are at stake, I'm your girl.''