 |
| Ava Hutchinson |
Ava Hutchinson has made the qualification time for the London Olympics after finishing fourth in the Houston Marathon in 2:35:33 – comfortably inside the Olympic A standard of 2:37. Not far behind was Gladys Ganiel of North Belfast Harriers who finished eighth in 2:40.56.
It was a great run by the 28-year-old Dundrum South Dublin athlete who was being stricken with a mid-race injury at last October’s National Lottery Dublin Marathon and finished in 2:42:48.
In Houston, Hutchinson started conservatively, running through 5km in 18:51 and 10km in 37.07 before clipping along for the rest of the race at 5.56/5.57 minute mile pace, going through halfway in 77:48.
Ganiel was just behind Hutchinson at 5km, running 18:52 and still in touch at 10km with a 37:14 split. Still running at six-minute mile pace, she went through the half-way mark in 78.25, but then faded, especially in the final 12km. Race winner was Alemitu Abera of Ethiopia in 2:28.14, with Australia’s Benita Willis second in 2:28.24 and Yihunlish Delelecha of Ethiopia third in 2:31.19.
Hutchinson’s great time means that Linda Byrne’s Olympic qualifying time of 2 hours 36 minutes 21 seconds set in Dublin may not be enough to book her place at London 2012. All could change even more radically over the next few weeks. Maria McCambridge is likely to run either in Seville on February 19 or Barcelona a month later on March 17 – and then there’s Rotterdam on April 15, with Caitriona Jennings, Lorraine Manning, Annette Kealy, Lizzie Lee, Breege Connolly, Rosemary Ryan and Barbara Sanchez all potential starters on a course that has produced world best times.
* At the Internacional de Itálica Cross-Country in Seville, Spain, Fionnuala Britton finished eighth in a race dominated by African athletes with Linet Masai of Kenya the winner in 25.42. In the race for the line, Italy’s Naddia Ejjafini beat Britton by seven seconds. Joe Sweeney was 24th in the men’s race, finishing almost two minutes behind Kenyan winner Geoffrey Kipsang
No comments yet.