O’Keeffe Smashes Women’s US Olympic Trials Record In Marathon Debut, Earns Spot In Paris Games – News18

ORLANDO, Fla.: Fiona O’Keeffe smashed the ladies’s U.S. Olympic marathon trials report in her debut on the distance on a heat Saturday to safe her spot within the Paris Games.

O’Keeffe completed in a time 2 hours, 22 minutes, 10 seconds to interrupt the American marathon trials mark of two:25:38 set by Shalane Flanagan in 2012 in Houston. Emily Sisson, the U.S. marathon report holder, was second and Dakotah Lindwurm surged into third to make Team USA for Paris.

On the lads’s aspect, coaching companions and good pals Conner Mantz and Clayton Young completed 1-2 to qualify for Paris. They celebrated with the group as they made their technique to the end line. Mantz completed in a time of two:09:05 as Young gave manner close to the top and completed a second behind.

Leonard Korir used a late surge to take third, however he now performs the ready recreation till May to see if a 3rd Olympic spot is unlocked on the American males’s marathon aspect. He completed in 2:09.57, simply off the time (2:08.10) he wanted to ensure a spot within the Paris Games.

It was round 60 levels Fahrenheit (15.5 Celsius) at the beginning of the race, with temperatures climbing into the 70s. In November, officers moved up the time of the race to 10 a.m. out of climate issues.

O’Keeffe soaked within the second after her shock end.

“I was not expecting this performance,” O’Keeffe stated in a postrace interview. “I had to pinch myself with eight miles to go and be like: ‘Stay calm. Don’t freak out.’”

For Sisson, it was redemption after dropping out late within the race on the marathon trials in Atlanta in February 2020. Lindwurm, a onetime goaltender on her highschool ice hockey workforce in Minnesota, went to Florida in December to get used to the climate.

Molly Seidel, who captured Olympic bronze on the Tokyo Games, didn’t take the beginning line due to a knee harm.

Mantz and Young had been teammates at BYU and are educated by two-time Olympic marathoner Ed Eyestone. Working collectively all through the race, Mantz and Young started pulling away with about three miles remaining. Young even rotated his hat — earlier than later ditching it — to get all the way down to enterprise.

Young, who had knee surgical procedure a 12 months in the past, energized the group by elevating his arms to generate extra applause down the homestretch.

It was their stage and so they loved the second — collectively.

Two-time defending U.S. marathon trials champion Galen Rupp wound up in sixteenth place. At 47, Abdi Abdirahman was attempting to make his sixth Olympic workforce, however he dropped out throughout the race.

The course alongside the streets of Orlando began with a 2 1/2-mile loop earlier than branching into three eight-mile loops on the pretty flat course.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)