Between the many television interviews and news conferences she's been asked to do this week, Priscilla Lopes-Schliep just wants to maintain a familiar routine.

On Saturday, she will line up against her great rival, Perdita Felicien, in the women's 100-metre hurdles, a duel that promises to be one of the highlights of the 2010 Canadian Track and Field Championships at the University of Toronto.

Lopes-Schliep, a native of Whitby, Ont., has been a regular visitor to the medal podium at international championships.

Two years ago, she shocked many with her Olympic bronze medal race in Beijing. A silver at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin followed.

Most recently, she claimed bronze in the 60-metre hurdles at the 2010 IAAF world indoor championships in Qatar. Felicien took the silver in that race.

Lopes-Schliep knows how formidable Felicien has proven to be at national championships: the Pickering native has won eight times in the past 10 years. Still, she is bristling with confidence.

"I feel really good about how my season has gone," Lopes-Schliep said.

"It's been consistent. I have been pleased and now I am hoping for a personal best this year. That would be phenomenal. I am looking forward to the latter half of the European circuit with Brussels, London and Stockholm the last few Diamond League meets still to come."

2nd-fastest time in world

Her current personal best in the 100-metre hurdles is 12.49 seconds, which she recorded last summer in Brussels.

This season, she has run 12.56, the second-fastest time in the world behind her good friend, American Lolo Jones, but she has also claimed victories in Ostrava and Lausanne and finished a close second in Oslo.

The track at the University of Toronto was torn up in May and a new surfaced laid. The old one didn't adhere to the asphalt underneath and there was movement when an athlete's foot pushed against it. The new track was tested two weeks ago.

While Lopes-Schliep will have a rival in Felicien to deal with on Saturday, there is one other hindrance she discovered while training on the new surface.

"I am looking forward to being on home soil and I am hoping for a personal best," she said. "But they have been giving us a hard time at the track. They have told us we can't wear certain pins [spikes] because they think they will tear up the track which has just been resurfaced.

"We have been wearing the 'Christmas tree' pins everywhere. They look like Christmas trees. But there they want us to wear something different. Everyone is running around: 'Do you have triangle pins?' Everybody wears the 'Christmas tree' ones. I have raced everywhere in the world with them. I hope we can solve it before Saturday."

The pin spikes controversy shouldn't affect her performance. This, after all, is the same athlete who completely missed her warm-up before the 2009 world championship final because she had been wrongly selected for doping control after the semifinal race.

Athletes who have advanced to a final the same day are normally excused from random doping controls until after they have competed in the final.

Jovial mood

In Berlin, she and her coach, Anthony McCleary, ran up and down staircases inside the Berlin Olympic stadium trying to find their way to the warm-up area. Still, she grabbed the silver medal.

McCleary is in a jovial mood as they prepare for Saturday's championship race, she said.

"There are the Commonwealth Games this year but no Olympics or world championships so we are looking forward to running a good race.

"My coach is doing a dance when he is excited and this random singing thing. I keep saying to him: 'What are you so chirpy about?' He says: 'Everything is looking good.' It's exciting we have that atmosphere in the group. And I am healthy and consistent and that is a big thing for an athlete."

The women's 100-metre hurdles semifinals are set for Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at the University of Toronto's track, with the final going at 5:50 p.m. Lopes-Schliep expects friends and family members will be out en masse to support her but maybe not in the same numbers as a year ago.

"I wish the championships didn't clash with Caribana," she said. "My family really likes soca music."