By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
 SYDNEY -- Leo Miles Mills was the man of the moment.

 He saved the Canadian bacon.

 It was the third heat of the 4x100-metre relay and the defending Olympic champions from Canada looked cooked.

 But then Mills of Ghana went down in a heap and, oh Canada, at least we didn't go from winning the gold to missing the playoffs.

 Sixteen relay teams got through to the next round and Canada qualified 16th.

 Ghana had to post a DNF, Britain had to get disqualified and still Canada was five spots back of the Ivory Coast. It actually was a tie for 16th with Ireland, which was in the same heat and had the same time. Apparently Canadian anchor Nicolas Macrozonaris had the longer nose.

 Anyway, that was the good news.

 The bad news is that Macrozonaris injured himself and won't be around for the semifinal, which was run early this morning.

 First Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin pulled the plug on their old buddy Glenroy Gilbert. Now the Great White Greek is scratched. If some miracle happens and this team gets through the semifinal, Gilbert may end up taking the baton from a boxer and handing it to a rower.

 Bailey, at one point, suggested he would like to be there if needed. Instead, he has been mostly in the bar the last few nights. And he flew out of here about four hours before Brad McCuaig was getting out of the blocks, which is only how long it seemed it took for McCuaig to get out of the blocks. Pierre Brown was the other member of the less-than-fearsome foursome.

 "I got a hamstring. The last 20 metres I started to fade. I'm telling you now I can't run. That's it,'' said Macrozonaris.

 At least there isn't a catfight between Surin and Bailey over who would run the anchor leg like there was in Seville at the world championships when this team self-destructed long before they bobbled the baton.

 "I wanted to run anchor,'' laughed Gilbert when I asked him if it was a little easier to pick the lineup this time.

 Now they're looking for volunteers.

 Gilbert is a study here. He's always been the glue for the 4 x 100 guys. It's his team. He's always been the leader. And watching him now is kind of like watching Mark Messier play for the Vancouver Canucks.

 He's been dumping all over Bailey and Surin all week while trying to pull this group together so they at least wouldn't embarrass themselves here and would be able to take something away from here which would help if they had to run a leg of the 4 x 100 next year at the world championships in Edmonton.

 "We were sweating out there,'' said Gilbert of waiting around for all the heats to finish to see if they'd live to race together one more time.

 "It was pins and needles.''

 Gilbert admits that's just a little bit different than qualifying while saving something to make a gold medal run in the final for the team which not only won the Olympic gold in Atlanta but the 1995 and 1997 worlds.

 "It's weird,'' he says of the experience.

 "But these young guys are doing a great job,'' he said of Browne and Macrozonaris.

 "I look at Pierre and he reminds me of me in 1988. I don't think they were scared. Pierre always looks scared. But, no . . .''

 When I threw out the Messier analogy, he smiled.

 "It would be great to be in the final. But I have an Olympic gold. I want to give these guys everything I can give and help them to give everything they can give. Leave everthing you've got on the track and you'll have no regrets,'' said Gilbert, who will go on to complete his career at Edmonton 2001 next year no matter what Bailey or Surin decide to do.

 "If I have to run with these guys again, so be it. I have no regrets of anything I said about Donovan and Bruny,'' he added of their me-me-me attitude and lack of respect for the team.

 "I spoke from my heart.

 "I think the leadership of Canadian track and field is in trouble and we have to clean house and start new with the athletes more in mind. We seem to do a lot of speaking with nobody listening. I mean, we talked about this exact possibility happening and taking two extra relay guys. If they'd listened to the athletes ...

 "In my opinion Canadian track doesn't revolve around two guys.''

 If Canadians are still watching these Olympics and still reading, if nothing else these Olympics may turn out to be the turning point for Canadian sport. In a lot of sports, and track is right up there, it's broken and it's time to fix it.