EUGENE, Ore. — Ben True of North Yarmouth again was one place short of qualifying for the Olympics, as he finished fourth in the 10,000 meters Friday night at the U.S. track and field trials.
Woody Kincaid, Grant Fisher and Joe Klecker pulled away in the final lap to claim the three Olympic berths. True was fourth in 27 minutes, 58.88 seconds.
True, 35, will have one more chance next week in the 5,000.
Earlier, Isaiah Harris of Lewiston and Rachel Schneider of Sanford began their quest for an Olympic berth by advancing past the first round of their events.
Harris, a former NCAA champion at 800 meters, finished third in his heat with a time of 1:45.25, just behind winner Donovan Brazier and second-place Brannon Kidder. He’ll race again Saturday in the semifinals; the final is Monday.
Mitchell Black of Brunswick placed seventh in his heat and was eliminated.
Schneider eased to a second-place finish in her 5,000-meter semifinal, clocking 15:23.45 to advance to Monday’s final.
Ryan Crouser, the defending Olympic shot put champion, broke a 31-year-old world record with his mark of 76 feet, 8 1/4 inches. He won the competition by beating world champion Joe Kovacs, with Payton Otterdahl taking third.
The outdoor mark of 75-10 1/4 had been owned by Randy Barnes of the U.S. since May 20, 1990. Five months ago, Crouser shattered Barnes’ world indoor record mark at 74-10 1/2 (22.82 meters).
Before racing started Friday, Shelby Houlihan’s quest to overturn her doping suspension in time to run at the trials was denied.
Houlihan’s request for an emergency injunction from Switzerland’s highest court was turned down because the court didn’t have the original decision to reference in order to make its own judgment.
The Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport announced earlier this week it had banned Houlihan for four years after international testers found traces of the performance enhancer nandrolone in her system.
Houlihan, who finished fourth at the world championships last year in the 1,500 and holds the American record at both 1,500 and 5,000 meters, says the positive test came because she ate a pork burrito hours before the test. There are many examples in recent years of tainted meat causing positives.
Houlihan had been entered in Friday’s preliminaries for both distances, but her name was removed before the races started.
She offered an update on the case on social media.
“I want to be clear that, contrary to media reports, I never had any intention of competing if this injunction wasn’t granted,” she said. “If I was going to race, it was going to be the right way. I respect the sport and my competitors too much.”
Her uncertain status for the races threw the day leading into the start of trials into chaos.
USA Track and Field announced Thursday that Houlihan would be allowed to run until she had exhausted all her appeals, which presumably included an appeal to the Swiss court. That brought a backlash from athletes and others who asked why an athlete who had received a ban from CAS, the ultimate authority in the sports world, was being allowed to race.
USATF and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee came back later in the day and said they would adhere to all antidoping rules. USATF explained that it didn’t receive official notice of Houlihan’s ban until late in the day, and therefore hadn’t been in position to remove her from the lineup.
Meantime, Houlihan’s team sent its appeal into the Swiss high court, asking for an injunction. While that request was denied, Houlihan said she would pursue the appeal once CAS issues its full decision.
“I am told that appeals of this kind are difficult to win, but I continue to believe that the truth will prevail,” she said.
In a social media post, and a video news conference earlier in the week, Houlihan and her attorney gave a detailed explanation of their case – including the existence of hair samples that offered no evidence of long-term buildup of nandrolone and a food log that showed she ate the burrito hours before the test.
“I can’t begin to find the words to express how disheartening this is,” she said in Friday’s post on Instagram. “It absolutely breaks my heart to have my dreams and career taken away for something I did not do.”
Houlihan would have been the favorite in both the 1,500 and 5,000. He absence from the 5,000 perhaps creates an opening for Schneider, who now is seeded fifth. Schneider is also entered in the 10,000 next week.
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