Davenport narrowly misses qualifying standard

MARIE DAVENPORT narrowly missed out on an Olympic A qualifying standard but smashed her personal best for 5000 metres in the United States at the weekend.

The Marian AC runner ran 15:09.07 to obliterate her previous best of 15:24.54 set last August at Santry as she claimed fourth place in a classy field at the second meet of the Boston High Performance series on Saturday night.

But while the first three home Americans Marla Runyan (14:59.03), Amy Rudolph (15:00.03) and Shalane Flanagan (15:05.08) all went under the Olympic A qualifying standard of 15:08.70, Davenport missed out by 0.37 of a second, although she was well inside the B standard of 15:20.45.