Audain makes 10,000 m final

Press, 27 September 1988, Page 25

Audain makes 10,000 m final

PA Seoul New Zealand’s Anne Audain yesterday qualified for Friday’s 10,000 metre athletics final at the Olympic stadium. Audain qualified for the 20-strong final field by running twelfth in heat one in 32min 10s behind Norway’s world record holder, Ingrid Kristiansen. The run gave Audain the fourth fastest time outside the 16 runners who took the first eight places In each heat The runners placed among the first eight in the heats and those with the four fastest times qualified for the final. Audain effectively qualified for the final by bursting past the Belgium runner, Marleen Renders, in the home straight. Audain’s time was almost two seconds faster than the winner of heat two, Elizabeth McCoigan (Great Britain). New Zealand’s other 10,000 m competitor, Christine McMiken, finished tenth in heat two in 32min 20s and failed to qualify for the final. Kristiansen’s 31min 44s set an Olympic record for the new Olympic event. Early pace-making duties in Audain’s heat were carried out by Australia’s Carolyn Schuwalow, Italy’s Rosanna Munerotto and Switzerland’s Martine Bouchon-neau-Oppligertook. Audain said after the race the pressure really went on about the 5000 m mark. At this stage Kristiansen broke from the bunch while Russia’s Elena Joupieva took up the chase. Audain was left at the head of the bunch. Kristiansen went through the 7000 m in 21min 49.61 s and the 8000 m in 25min 33s and the 9000 m in 28min 395. Audain finished approximately 200 m behind Kristiansen. Audain was on tenderhooks after the race. Shortly before she left the stadium she said she was hopeful she just might make the final. “It was a real tough heat. The second heat was not quite as tough. My 32min 10s is not a bad time for me but I didn’t feel good running it. I just hope to salvage a place in the final,” Audain said. The runners in McMiken’s heat were led through the 6000 m by China’s Xiuting Wang and Canada’s Nancy Tinari in 19min 365. The same two runners headed the field through the 7000 m mark in 22min 48.52 s and 26min 04s through the 8000 m. With four laps remaining Lynn Nelson, of the United States, took the lead before Elizabeth McCoigan took the field home in 32min 11.955.