Posted: June 6, 2004

Athletics: No Olympic Games "A" Qualifiers At Jerome Meeting

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

The 21st Vancouver Sun Harry Jerome International Track Classic --a meeting which is actually held on two dates, one in June and the other in July-- did not produce any Olympic Games "A" qualifying performances last night when three 10,000m races were contested.

Ireland's Mark Carroll won the top section of the men's 10,000m in 28:07.33, followed by Mexico's Teodoro Vega (28:08.22) and America's Mike Donnelly (28:30.96). The Olympic "A' standard qualifying time is 27:49.00.

Canada's Mark Bomba won the "B" section in 29:30.42.

In the women's race Margarita Tapia of Mexico won in 32:28.66, well off of the "A" standard of 31:45.00. Aster Demissie of Ethiopia was second in 32:30.08 while Lucy Smith of Canada was third in 32:59.21.

The dearth of non-championships 10,000m races throughout the world continues to be a problem, as athletes and managers alike are faced with a diminishing list of events where a qualifying time can be earned before the IAAF deadline of 09-Aug-2004. Many countries have set their own deadlines (and standards) which must be achieved even earlier.

Subscribe to Race Results Weekly: www.raceresultsweekly.com.