Posted: July 10, 2004

Athletics: Keflezighi Sets U.S. Olympic Trials Record

From David Monti

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

SACRAMENTO (09-Jul) -- Meb Keflezighi, the U.S. 10,000m record holder, took a shot at his own record here tonight, winning his second U.S. Olympic Trials at 10,000m.

Keflezighi, who divides his time between Mammoth Lakes and San Diego, Calif., was running mostly 64 and 65 second laps in cool but breezy conditions at Hornet Stadium, but his pace cooled off in the final kilometer. Nonetheless, he set a U.S. Olympic Trials record with his 27:36.49 finish time, surpassing the previous mark of 27:45.61 set by Craig Virgin in 1980.

Abdi Abdirahman and Dan Browne finished second and third in 27:55.00 and 28:07, respectively. All three of the top finishers already had the Olympic Games "A" standard time so they have guaranteed their selection to the U.S. Olympic team, if they choose. Keflezighi and Browne are already selected in the marathon.

The other two men with the Olympic Games "A" standard, Bob Kennedy and Dathan Ritzenhein, had tragic races. Kennedy, the U.S. record holder at 3000m and 5000m, dropped out of the race with an Achilles injury which only began to bother him two weeks ago. Ritzenhein, the U.S. collegiate record holder for 10,000m, ran in pain on a stress fracture in his foot, finishing last in 31:13.91. However, since Ritzenhein finished the race, he can still be selected for the Olympic team if either Browne or Keflezighi give up their spots to concentrate on the marathon. Kennedy cannot be selected because he did not finish the race.

Elsewhere, all the favorites in the women's 5000m advanced to the final, including Marla Runyan, Amy Rudolph, Shayne Culpepper, Carrie Tollefson and Shalane Flanagan. In a strange heat arrangement, of the 17 women who started the preliminaries, 14 advanced to the final.