Canada's Philibert-Thiboutot in career-best running form after managing negative emotions

Canadian middle-distance runner Charles Philibert-Thiboutot was talking with French counterpart Jimmy Gressier in early June following another "unlucky" performance on the track in less-than-ideal conditions.

Gressier had lined up two men's 1,500-metre races later in the month in France and suggested his friend join him, believing they could help each other post fast times.

"I felt like this might be [the time for a personal best] and I should go," Philibert-Thiboutot said this week from his Vancouver home. "With the bad luck I had had, I needed to run to my full capability before getting back to training. That's what drove the decision."

On June 10 in Montesson, Philibert-Thiboutot jostled for position off the start on a warm and calm day and was about 10 metres behind the peloton at the 100-metre mark. But he worked his way through to the front pack and finished second in three minutes 33.54 seconds for a Quebec record and his first PB since 2015. Only Kevin Sullivan, the three-time Olympian and 1994 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, has run faster among Canadian men in 3:31.71.

Eight days after Montesson, Philibert-Thiboutot said "everything fell into place perfectly" at the Meeting Stanislas Nancy, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver event, where the Quebec City athlete clocked 3:32.94 in a stacked field that pushed the pace once the pace-setters fell off at 1,100 metres.

"It was weighing on me that I couldn't run a PB for so long," Philibert-Thiboutot said in a Tuesday interview with CBC Sports before flying to Silesia, Poland for the 14th Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Diamond League meet on Sunday. "After I broke the glass ceiling with the first race in France, it was pure elation. There's a whole new