Troop qualifies for Beijing with sixth in Berlin

Geelong marathon runner Lee Troop has qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with a stellar performance at the Berlin Marathon.

Finishing with a time of 2:10.31, the 34 year-old finished under the Olympic qualifying time of 2:12.00 in the 42.195km event. Troop finished sixth in the race to stake his claim on a spot in his third Olympic Games.

At the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Troop finished the marathon in 66th place in a time of 2:29.32 and at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games he finished 28th with a time of 2:18.46.

The race featured a world best marathon time by winner Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia in a time of 2:04.26, eclipsing the previous mark of 2:04.55 set by Paul Tergat of Kenya.

Troop’s split times from the race indicate how fast he raced from the beginning; his first 5km was run in a time of 14.59 and his second 5km only slightly slower at 15.01. Troop’s race strategy saw him go out very fast at the beginning ensuring he was racing alongside other competitors throughout the event.

Troop’s determination to put behind him the setbacks of the past two years was on display during the race and his blood soaked shoes at the completion of the event were evident that not even severe blisters were going to abort his race.

Troop’s qualification for the Olympics now means that he can focus on aiming for personal best performances after a series of injury blows in the past two years.

“For the first time in a very long time, I’m 100 per cent healthy, I’m in really great shape and I’ve put in 16 really hard weeks so far in order to do that,” Troop said before flying out to Germany.

Describing his past six years, Troop states he “had a bit of a horror run with injuries and missing the Commonwealth Games was probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to accept.

“I’ve worked really, really hard with a practitioner down in Geelong who after 18 months has been able to strip my body back completely to where it was in the late nineties.

“My training for the last 16 weeks has been as good a preparation I’ve ever had going into a marathon. It’s fantastic to realise that at 34 I’m still able to run as good as I ever have.” Troop said.

Fellow Australian Scott Westcott also competed at the event in a time of 2:15.00 to finish in 17th place.

Other Australians that competed were Andrew Letherby (DNF) and Anna Thompson (DNF – having withdrawn between the 22-23 km mark).

The event is Germany’s biggest and most spectacular marathon for which 40,215 runners from 115 nations had entered. About one million spectators and ideal weather conditions also contributed to the electric atmosphere of the race.

For further information:
IAAF report
Berlin Marathon results
Read Athletic Australia’s feature story on Lee Troop

In other news over the weekend, decathlete Jason Dudley achieved a B-qualifier for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the Athletics North Queensland Championships.

The event was held in Townsville and the hot and humid weather conditions in far north Queensland provided a snapshot of the likely weather conditions next year in Beijing.

Dudley scored 7729 points with two personal bests in the shot put (15.32m) and the pole vault (4.80m). This was Dudley’s first competition since winning bronze in the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games 18 months ago.

Having been back in full training for only nine weeks following foot surgery and hamstring strains, Dudley has his sights set strongly towards further success in 2008.

In other weekend news:
Rawlinson concludes season on a high
Adams secures World Challenge title