Posted: August 5, 2004

Athletics: McGregor To Make Final Attempt At Olympic Standard

From David Monti

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

U.S. 10,000m runner Katie McGregor (Team USA Minnesota/adidas) will make one more attempt to achieve the Olympic Games "A" standard for 10,000m of 31:45.OO tomorrow, according to her manager, Rich Kenah.

"Katie will be running a track 10k this Friday (tomorrow) at an all-comers meet at Diablo College in northern California," said Kenah in an e-mail exchange with RRW. "She will have a pacemaker through 5k."

McGregor, 26, finished fourth at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Sacramento last month behind Deena Kastor, Elva Dryer and Kate O'Neill. Kastor relinquished her team berth immediately following the race, choosing to focus instead on the marathon. McGregor, as the fourth place finisher, received a nomination to the team, and if she can achieve the "A" standard by 09-Aug she can join Dryer and O'Neill on the team.

The former University of Michigan star who usually runs with her long red hair in a ponytail atop her head, came very close to making the standard on 30-Apr at the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Finishing sixth, she clocked 31:51.26, a scant 25/100ths of a second per lap slower than the required mark. At the Olympic Trials she ran 32:33.87.

Dryer had achieved the "A" standard last year, while O'Neill had achieved it at this year's Cardinal Invitational, finishing third in 31:34.37, a personal best.