Priscilla Lopes-Schliep was good to go Wednesday - first in the doping centre then on the track inside Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

As strange as it sounds, the Canadian 100-metre hurdler was 10 minutes away from Wednesday night's world athletics championship final when the doping police walked up to her and said, "Come with us."

They took her to doping control and asked for a urine sample. Luckily for the 26-year-old Whitby, Ont., sprinter, she delivered on cue, frantically returned to the starting area and then produced one of her best efforts of the season, winning a silver medal, Canada's first at the 2009 world athletics meet.

Considering her prerace distraction, Lopes-Schliep was thrilled to place second to Jamaican Brigitte Foster-Hylton and her winning time of 12.51 seconds. Lopes-Schliep clocked in at 12.54, 0.01 seconds faster than another Jamaican, Delloreen Ennis-London.

"I was shocked," Lopes-Schliep said of her impromptu drug test, the first she has had to give before a race. "I was randomly selected after the semi-final. ... I just put it out of my mind. I was the only one [from the final field]. I had to refocus and regather and do what I had to do and get out of the blocks as fast as I could."

Asked if it was legal for meet officials to test an athlete so close to a final, Lopes-Schliep replied: "Apparently."

Lopes-Schliep said she ran around the stadium after her test trying to find the quickest way back to the track. Remarkably, she was all business by the time she settled into her starting blocks in Lane 6. Positioned to her right was Australian Sally McLellan, who burst out into an early lead. To the left was American Dawn Harper, who had turned in a scorching time of 12.48 seconds in the semi-final.

After an okay start, Lopes-Schliep powered her way among the leaders, then across the finish line knowing she had at least duplicated her bronze-medal performance from last summer's Beijing Olympics.

"I knew I was top three. I didn't know what place I was," said Lopes-Schliep, who earned $40,000 (U.S.) in prize money. "I knew Brigitte was ahead of me. She didn't know she had won because she ran through with her eyes closed."

While Lopes-Schliep draped herself in a Canadian flag after the race, teammate Perdita Felicien quietly headed off the track and into a dressing room. Felicien defeated Lopes-Schliep at this year's Canadian championships but finished last in the final yesterday with a time of 15.53 seconds.

Athletics Canada officials noted Felicien's calves cramped and that she clipped the second hurdle. Lopes-Schliep said she didn't see Felicien after the race and assumed "she hit a hurdle."

The 2003 world champion, Felicien has been hot and cold since her disastrous fall at the 2004 Athens Olympics. She recovered to finish fourth and second at the 2005 and 2007 world championships but had to miss the Beijing Olympics because of a foot injury.

Felicien did not speak to reporters on yesterday's conference call.

For Lopes-Schliep, the silver medal was another example of her ability to produce on race day, no matter the circumstances. She may have come out of nowhere to take the bronze in China, but last month's winning showing at the DN Galan Super Grand Prix in Stockholm - she recorded a personal best 12.51 - put her among the favourites in Berlin.

"It's helped a lot," Lopes-Schliep said of her Olympic experience. "Every year that goes by gets stronger and stronger. There are bigger and better things I expect from myself. We can only see what the future holds."

Her coach, Anthony McCleary, believes there will be faster times in the weeks and months ahead.

"She can improve," McCleary said. "We can do adjustments at the beginning [of her race]. ... There's another 2/10ths [of a second] somewhere in that [early] section. We'll get that out soon."

As for her prerace drug test, Lopes-Schliep was able to laugh at one aspect of it - she got to skip the postrace doping act.

"I was lucky there, if you can call that being lucky."

Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt had an easy time yesterday in his 200-metre semi-final. The Olympic 100 and 200 champion turned in half a race to win his semi in 20.08 seconds. Had he pushed himself, Bolt could have broken Tyson Gay's championship record of 19.76. Bolt owns the word record of 19.30.

The 200 final goes tonight with temperatures expected to reach 30, just the way Bolt likes it.