AUSTIN, Texas – Three former Longhorns will be fighting for a spot on Team USA this weekend with the opportunity to wear Red, White and Blue in the 2016 Olympics.
The USA Olympic Marathon Trials are set to run on Saturday in Los Angeles as the Los Angeles Marathon will serve as the Trials for 2016. The USATF announced earlier this week this is the largest field ever assembled for the Olympic Marathon Trials. A total of 373 men and women will run the 26.2 miles through the streets of Los Angeles.
Three of those runners will be Texas Longhorns. Will Nation and Rory Tunningley are both former Texas distance stars, and Olivia Mickle will run the women’s marathon.
Nation won the Round Rock 3M Half Marathon last year and qualified for the Olympic Trials by finishing the Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, in a qualifying time of 1:04.56, breaking the qualifying barrier by four seconds.
Tunningley qualified by running 1:04.52 at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon in November.
Olivia Mickle is set for her first Olympic Marathon Trials after a stellar career for the Longhorns. She qualified just over a month ago at the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon with a time of 1:14.15.
The USA Olympic Marathon Trials are set to begin at noon Central on Saturday. This year also will be the first year the Marathon Trials will be aired live on NBC featuring simultaneous coverage of the men’s and women’s races. NBC Sports Live Extra will also stream coverage of the Trials for desktops, mobile devices, tablets and connected TVs.
The top three finishers from each race who meet the Olympic time standards will be nominated for Team USA and be eligible to represent the nation in the 2016 Olympic Games. A record prize pool is also in play for the runners this year. USATF announced the $600,00 will be distributed among the top 10 finishers in both races.
To qualify for the USA Olympic Marathon Trials runners must have run a time faster than the A Standard for a full marathon or the B Standard of a full marathon or half marathon. The men’s A Standard was 2:15.00 for a full men’s marathon with the B Standard being 2:19.00 for a full or 1:05.00 for a half marathon. The women’s A Standard was 2:37.00 for a full with the B Standard coming in at 2:45.00 for a full and 1:15.00 for a half.