21.04.2008

A-qualifiers for Birmingham and Smyth

Collis Birmingham and Kate Smyth have put their hands up for Olympic consideration after stellar A-qualifying performances on the weekend.

Competing at the 50th running of the Mt SAC Relays in California, Birmingham (VIC) snuck under the A-standard in a personal best time of 13:21.12 to easily take out the men's invitational 5000m by nearly seven seconds.

It was the 24-year-old's first A-qualifier, after producing a 'B' at the World Athletics Tour meet in Melbourne earlier in the year.

Despite a fast finish, three-time national 800m champion Nick Bromley (NSW) finished second in one of the 1500m divisional races in a time of 3:43.38. Preya Carey (NSW) clocked 12.07 in the women's 100m to place seventh, and Matt Hammond (1:50.37) and Chris De Boer (1:50.98) finished third and sixth repectively in the men's 800m.

At the Nagano Marathon in Japan, Kate Smyth (VIC) destroyed her previous personal best to dip under the A-qualifying mark by more than three minutes, completing the course in 2:28:51.

It was a two-woman race at the 25km mark between Smyth and eventual winner Russian Alevtina Ivanova. However the Russian surged and left Smyth behind at the 30km mark, to win comfortably in 2:26:39, the third-fastest winning time in the history of the event.

Smyth crossing the line in second place, nearly a five minute improvement from her previous career best of 2:33:39 from the 2006 Chicago Marathon.

Former world record holder Tegla Loroupe from Kenya was a distant 12^th.

Smyth joins Benita Johnson and Lee Troop on the 'A' list, with Scott Westcott, Andrew Letherby and Lisa Jane Weightman all with Olympic B-qualifiers to their name. Marathon nominations for the Beijing Olympics will be decided by Australian selectors on or before May 19.