The Road to Beijing: From Belize to Houston?
Many runners in the greater Houston area running scene know Melissa Henderson as the talented athlete who runs for the Al Lawrence Running Club in HARRA competition.
Henderson picked up her second straight Spring Runner of the Season with a close, narrow win over Bay Area Running Club's Debbie Rudisill and the Tornados' Jennifer Brown.
The 32-year-old native of Belize is attempting to qualify in the marathon for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
I stumbled across today the web site where she has been logging her race reports and training. It is http://www.melissacandia.com/. I would recommend that you check it out.
Henderson will compete in next month's IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan and attempt to run a 2:42 marathon, which is the "B" qualifying standard for the 2008 Olympics, or finish in the top 20, as runners doing so there will be considered to have run the "A" standard (which is 2:37).
What's unclear, since Henderson's marathon PR is 3:05:05, is what happens if neither of those things happen.
This piece - Section 3.5 of the IAAF Qualifying Standards - would lead one to believe that if Belize had no qualifying athletes in any event that it could chose to send one male and one female athlete in just one event to the Olympics:
NOCs for which no male or no female athlete has reached the required qualification standards will be allowed to enter their best male athlete and their best female athlete for 1 athletic event each, with the exception of the combined events, 10.000m and 3.000m steeplechase. This applies equally to unqualified female entries from an NOC with qualified males, and vice versa.
Athletes from NOCs which have requested such entries may reach the specified qualification standards between 30 June 2008 and 23 July 2008, in which case they would no longer be entitled to enter additional unqualified entries in the gender of the qualified athlete.
Acceptance of unqualified entries in field events will be at the discretion of the IAAF Technical Delegates, based on the technical standard of the athlete and the numbers of qualified athletes in the respective event. The athletes concerned must be competitive at international level, proven through participation at recognised IAAF international events.
In order to allow the IAAF Technical Delegates to assess the technical level of athletes requesting entries through this process, applications must be submitted by NOCs to the IAAF by 30 June 2008 on the appropriate IAAF form. The application must specify the event in which the entry is requested and the proof of the technical level and international participation of the nominated athlete. The IAAF Technical Delegates will confirm by 23 July 2008, in writing to NOCs the approval or otherwise of the entry of the specified athlete(s).
It would still seem that - reading her blog and the decision by Belize's NOC to send her to Osaka next month (and having also qualified for this month's Pan American Games) - she would be the one female athlete that they send to Beijing.
Regardless of the potential method of qualification, I certainly wish Melissa well in Osaka next month in reaching her dream of representing her country in the 2008 Olympics.
Henderson picked up her second straight Spring Runner of the Season with a close, narrow win over Bay Area Running Club's Debbie Rudisill and the Tornados' Jennifer Brown.
The 32-year-old native of Belize is attempting to qualify in the marathon for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
I stumbled across today the web site where she has been logging her race reports and training. It is http://www.melissacandia.com/. I would recommend that you check it out.
Henderson will compete in next month's IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan and attempt to run a 2:42 marathon, which is the "B" qualifying standard for the 2008 Olympics, or finish in the top 20, as runners doing so there will be considered to have run the "A" standard (which is 2:37).
What's unclear, since Henderson's marathon PR is 3:05:05, is what happens if neither of those things happen.
This piece - Section 3.5 of the IAAF Qualifying Standards - would lead one to believe that if Belize had no qualifying athletes in any event that it could chose to send one male and one female athlete in just one event to the Olympics:
NOCs for which no male or no female athlete has reached the required qualification standards will be allowed to enter their best male athlete and their best female athlete for 1 athletic event each, with the exception of the combined events, 10.000m and 3.000m steeplechase. This applies equally to unqualified female entries from an NOC with qualified males, and vice versa.
Athletes from NOCs which have requested such entries may reach the specified qualification standards between 30 June 2008 and 23 July 2008, in which case they would no longer be entitled to enter additional unqualified entries in the gender of the qualified athlete.
Acceptance of unqualified entries in field events will be at the discretion of the IAAF Technical Delegates, based on the technical standard of the athlete and the numbers of qualified athletes in the respective event. The athletes concerned must be competitive at international level, proven through participation at recognised IAAF international events.
In order to allow the IAAF Technical Delegates to assess the technical level of athletes requesting entries through this process, applications must be submitted by NOCs to the IAAF by 30 June 2008 on the appropriate IAAF form. The application must specify the event in which the entry is requested and the proof of the technical level and international participation of the nominated athlete. The IAAF Technical Delegates will confirm by 23 July 2008, in writing to NOCs the approval or otherwise of the entry of the specified athlete(s).
It would still seem that - reading her blog and the decision by Belize's NOC to send her to Osaka next month (and having also qualified for this month's Pan American Games) - she would be the one female athlete that they send to Beijing.
Regardless of the potential method of qualification, I certainly wish Melissa well in Osaka next month in reaching her dream of representing her country in the 2008 Olympics.
posted by WalkSports.com | 3:54 PM
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