Cragg qualifies for Olympic 5000m

At the Cardinal Invitation meeting in Palo Alto, California, Clonliffe’s Alistair Cragg was a runaway winner of the 5,000m in 13:16.98 which was a personal best performance and also bettered the Olympic standard by over five seconds. Sonia O’Sullivan won the Womens 5000m in a time of 14 minutes 58.43 seconds. It’s been reported that both Alistair and Sonias times are the fastest in the world this year and are very encouraging for Athens.

Cathal Lombard (Leevale) also gained the Olympic 10,000m standard, placing third in 27:33.53 – which bettered Mark Carroll’s Irish record by over 13 seconds. He already has the qualifying time for the 5000m.

Marie McMahon-Davenport, a veteran of the 1996 Games in Atlanta, finished 2nd in the Womens 10,000m in the Stanford Invitational running a personal best of 31.28.78 behind Sally Barsosio of Kenya. She also qualifies for Athens with this time.

So far, there have been 12 Irish Track & Field athletes who have qualified for this year’s Olympics.