Fionnuala Britton achieves Olympic 'A' standard in California...

In the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University in California over the weekend, Fionnuala Britton from Wicklow ran 31:29.22 in the women's 10,000 metre race. As this is faster than the Olympic 'A' standard of 31:45, she has now qualified for the 10,000 metres in London.

Even though she had already qualified for the Olympics in the 3,000 metre steeplechase, it is generally felt that she would be a lot more competitive over the 5k/10k distance. This move to the track follows on from a successful winter season after she won the European Cross Country Championships in Slovenia last December.

Race result...
Event 59  Women 10000 Meter Run Kim McDonald
    Name                    Year School                  Finals
  1 Betsy Saina                  Unattached            31:15.97
  2 Amy Hastings                 Brooks                31:19.87
  3 Fionnuala Britton            Ireland               31:29.22
  4 Julia Bleasdale              Melbourne Tr          31:29.57
  5 Janet Cherobon-Bawcom        Unattached            31:33.50

This performance now makes Fionnula Britton the 4th fastest Irish woman over 10,000 metres...
1..30:47.59..Sonia O'Sullivan..
2..31:08.41..Catherina McKiernan
3..31:28.78..Marie Davenport
4..31:29.22...Fionnuala Britton


In the video clip above, Fionnuala is in the dark red top with purple shorts...(video is 34 mins long!)

Other Irish Results......

1) Alistair Cragg posts a DNF in the men's 10k despite running well for the first half.....video HERE
2) Orla Drumm ran 4:13.27 in the women's 1500 metres finishing in 5th place. This is just 7 seconds outside the Olympic 'A' standard of 4:06. Orla ran 4:18.48 at the recent Leevale track meet in mid-April...Results
3) Mark Christie...Ran 13:37.32 in Section 1 of the 5,000m (17th position)...Results
4) Brendan O'Neill...Ran 13:41.06 in Section 2 of the 5,000m (5th position)...Results
5) Kerry Harty...Ran 10:13.83 in the women's 3000m steeplechase...Results
6) Joe Sweeney...Ran 28:45.17 in section 2 of the 10,000 metres (25th position)...Results