Posted: July 1, 2004

Athletics: Reina, Holmes Headline San Sebastian On Saturday

From David Monti

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

by Bob Ramsak

Spaniard Antonio Manuel Reina and Briton Kelly Holmes are the headline attractions at Saturday's international meeting in San Sebastian, Spain.

Reina, the 2002 World Cup champion, is currently the world leader in the 800m with his 1:44.30 win in Zaragoza, Spain on June 8. Here, he will face Kenyan Vincent Kemboi and Saad Kemal Youssef of Bahrain, while Holmes, who will skip Friday's Golden Gala meeting in Rome, makes her first 800m appearance of the outdoor season. The 34-year-old Briton captured the silver medal in the event at last year's World Championships, and was the winner of last weekend's 1500m race in Gateshead, GBR. Holmes goes head-to-head with Moroccan Hasna Benhassi (1:59.95).

The men's 1500m includes some of Spain's best milers, including Reyes Estevez, Andres Diaz and Roberto Parra. Kenyan Mike Too, who has run sub-3:35 this year, and Sammy Mutai are in the field as well. Kenyans James Kwalia and Paul Bitok, who have both dipped under the 13 minute mark in in 2003 and 2002 respectively, lead the 5000m.

Nuria Fernandez and Iris Fuentes-Pila top the women's 1500, with a significant number of entrants chasing the Olympic 'A' standards of 4:05.80.

In the women's 5000m, Lauren Fleshman of the U.S. is attacking the 'A' standard of 15:08.70 one last time before next week's Olympic Trials. Fleshman lowered her personal best to 15:09.98 at April's Cardinal Invitational, narrowly missing the mark for Athens. Besides the 22-year-old Stanford University grad, only two others in the field have run faster than 15:10.00 this year.

The San Sebastian meeting is part of Spain's domestic Vodofone series, in which Spanish athletes collect points for a season-ending jackpot totaling 160,000 euros. Additionally, prize money will be awarded through eighth place, with 3000 euros to the winner.