Jeremy Wariner, right, is congratulated by Tyler Christopher after winning the men's 400 meters at the Adidas Track Classic on Sunday. (Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press)

Tyler Christopher proved he is a legitimate Olympic medal contender as he finished 2nd in the men's 400-metre race at the Adidas Track Classic in Carson, Calif., on Sunday.

World and Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner of the United States won the race in a time of 44.42 seconds.

Christopher, a native of Chilliwack, B.C., finished in 44.71 seconds, his fastest season-opening time ever and just 0.27 seconds off his Canadian record of 44.44, which he set in claiming the 2005 world championships bronze medal.

"I had one goal, and that was to open up faster than I had ever done before," Christopher said. "I felt pretty good. It was a controlled and balanced race. I have no complaints."

Christopher was in Lane 5 with Wariner running next to him in Lane 4. On the final bend, the American ran past him and into the lead. But rather than tighten up, he maintained composure all the way to the finish.

"I didn't really care where he was. It was his third race of the year and he should be in race mode," Christopher said. "I wanted to be under 45 seconds. I opened up a 10th of a second faster than I ever have before."

Christopher, 24, plans to race sparingly in order to be in prime shape for the Olympics in August. He will run at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., in three weeks. He looks forward to racing Wariner in Beijing.

"Yeah, I expect to give him a challenge. Nobody is unbeatable," he said. "Today I could have probably reached over and touched him. He beat me by two 10ths of a second. So that's in the realm of possibilities."

Highly anticipated showdown

The 400 m race was one of the most anticipated events of the meet. The man Christopher beat to win the 2008 International Association of Athletics Federations world indoor championships, Chris Brown of Bahamas, was third in 44.94, while world indoor 400 m record-holder Kerron Clement of the United States finished fourth in 45.10.

Clement is also the reigning world 400 m hurdles champion.

In the men's 1,500 event, a resurgent Kevin Sullivan of Brantford, Ont., battled with Bernard Lagat, the 2007 world 1,500 and 5,000 champion, and Nick Willis of New Zealand all the way down the final home straight to finish third in a time of 3:35.78.

"I knew Lagat had asked for a pacemaker and wanted to run 3:32 or 3:33," Sullivan, 34, said afterward. "So really for me it was more trying to focus on racing well and trying to put myself in a position to win the race, and I knew if I did that, the time would come."

Lagat, a Kenyan-born U.S. citizen, won the race in 3:35.14 with Willis, the reigning Commonwealth champion, second in 3:35.75.

Most important to Sullivan was achieving the Olympic A+ standard, a mark set by Athletics Canada, of 3:36.60. Now that he has beaten that time, Sullivan is all but assured a place on his third consecutive Olympic team. Sullivan was captain of both the Sydney and Athens Olympic track and field teams. He finished fifth in Sydney in the 1,500, a race in which Lagat won the bronze.

"We don't have a lot of time to get the standard this year," Sullivan explained. "When the North American meets are over, there's not much in Europe [before the deadline]. I wanted to get it out of the way early, and now I can just focus on training instead of worrying about making a time."

Nathan Brannen of Cambridge, Ont., who had surgery to repair a herniated disc last November, finished sixth in 3:37.69. After missing four weeks of training because of his injury, he said he was encouraged with his performance Sunday.

"I was hoping to get the Olympics A standard out of the way," Brannen said. "But I am ahead of where everyone expected me to be. I only did my first workout in the first week of February, so I have a lot of improvement."

'Content with the start'

Carmen Douma-Hussar, who like Brannen hails from Cambridge, opened her season with a sixth-place finish in the women's 1,500 — recording a time of 4:09.74 in a race won by Shannon Rowbury of the U.S. in 4:01.61.

"The race went OK," said Douma-Hussar, a silver medallist in the distance at the 2004 world indoor championships. "I am content with the start to the season. Obviously, it's more fun when you run fast. I am only going to continue working on it and be ready to go in August."

Douma-Hussar won the Canadian women's cross-country championships in November and has continued to pile on the mileage to build endurance.

"I am comfortable with it. You always want to start with a 4:04," said Douma-Hussar. "Typically my years start slow and get faster. Considering I am doing high mileage, once I start tapering, the times will come down. It,s been a long time since I have run a 1,500."

Next on her schedule is the 1,500 race at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York on May 31.

In the men's shot put, Dylan Armstrong achieved the Olympic A+ standard with a huge toss of 20.67 metres to finish third behind Americans Christian Cantwell, the 2008 world indoor champion, and Adam Nelson, a two-time Olympic silver medallist. Cantwell's winning throw went 21.39 m.

Armstrong, a 27-year-old native of Kamloops, B.C., was ninth in the 2007 world championships and is closing in on the Canadian record of 20.86 m held by Jason Snyder.

"I was very happy with what I did today," he said, "placing third with some of the top guys in the world. I was pretty pleased this early in the stage.

"The consistency is there. I am hoping for a breakthrough in the next couple of weeks. I am heading over to Europe and have four competitions lined up, so I am looking forward to throwing in those. I think it's time for me to really get one out there."

Miscue in hurdles

Christopher's training partner Adam Kunkel didn't have the best start to his season, finishing seventh in his specialty — the 400 m hurdles.

The competitors were called to the check-in tent where they waited to be escorted to the starting line. An official finally showed up to announce the race was starting in three minutes.

"Any other meet in the world, they gather the athletes and take you out as a group. Apparently, we were supposed to get our hip number and make our own way. Which would have been fine if we knew that," Kunkel said laughing.

"Because we were rushed out, we had to literally jog out to the start, put on our spikes and get in the blocks for the gun. I didn't have the chance to do a single sprint in my spikes or do a practice start. Being my first race, it was a little bit rocky out of the blocks."

A finalist at the 2007 world championships in Osaka, Kunkel was hoping to run under 49 seconds on Sunday. Instead he ran a very mediocre 50.62 seconds in a race won in 48.94 by 2005 world champion Bershawn Jackson of the U.S.