Correction: Women's 5,000 Metre
Oops. While Sonia O'Sullivan finished last in the women's 5,000-metre final (see previous entries: The Irish Times on Sonia O'Sullivan, Results for Tuesday, August 24), I somehow overlooked the fact that there were also qualifying heats. The slowest time for the women's 5,000-metre was, in fact, put in by Francine Niyonizigiye of Burundi in heat 1 -- 17:21.27, compared with the winner's final time of 14:45.65. Sonia's story is compelling but she was not, in fact, DFL. Sorry about that. (Thanks to this anonymous commenter for pointing this out.)
Labels: athens 2004, athletics, burundi, corrections, ireland
3 Comments:
At 12:35 PM, August 25, 2004 ,
Anonymous said...
Howdy,
Should qualifying heats really be taken into account? On the one hand, it seems to be a whole lot more work, but on the other hand, you can post the DFL after the first qualifying round. However, if you're Francine gets DFL over Sonia due to a qualifying heat, are you going back to adjust all the other events with qualifying heats, too?
Not that this bugs me THAT much, but it does seem a bit inconsistent.
-- Ed
At 12:58 PM, August 25, 2004 ,
mcwetboy said...
No, I've been consistently tracking the slowest heat times on the assumption that they'll be the slowest times. To be consistent here, I've had to put in the slowest heat time. So far I haven't found a semi or final time that was slower, but even in that case, they would have had to put in a faster time somewhere else to qualify for that round.
At 4:07 AM, August 26, 2004 ,
wallyweta said...
I think to ask you to go look at every heat is a trifle onerous (although I see you have generally done that) - if Sonia the immaculate drops her athletic bundle in the final (and she sure did) then I reckon she's fair game. Herself what done the 17.21 in the heat, well good luck to her and her rich-or-well-connected-dad for being in the national team for offthewallistan. Every race needs a bunny. Your (my perception) ambition to celebrate the almost great might otherwise be limited to the sons and saughters of the rich and powerful who care to indulge their offspring's lunatic desires to be last on the world stage. Last in the final is a noble calling. I should have given up an appendage to be in such a space.