With five athletes competing, it was a busy ten days of Olympic athletics competition for Team KIMbia. After a total of eight performances (counting all prelims and finals), Evan Jager came away with the highest finish in his first-ever Olympic Games, finishing sixth in the Men’s Steeplechase, just four seconds out of medal position. The 23-year-old came home in 8:23 .87 having led several of the slow early laps and indicated he learned a lot from the experience of being in a tactical race that closes at sub-60 pace.

Shalane Flanagan took tenth in the marathon after reaching as high as fifth place with just four kilometers to go. Trying to stay within striking distance of a six-woman breakaway near the 25k mark, Shalane eventually paid a heavy for her medal-or-bust mentality, as major cramping caused her to struggle home the final few miles. Shalane and coach Jerry Schumacher were understandably disappointed, what with Flanagan entering the race as a Beijing bronze medalist, but neither expressed any regrets about running aggressively. Likewise, Lopez Lomong was also tenth in his event, the 5000m final. Lomong, a poster-boy for P&G and Visa during the Games, finished less than six seconds from the bronze. Read the full article

Flag-bearer in 2008, Lopez Lomong, 27 — a Sudanese native by way of New York, Arizona, and now Oregon — is looking to become a medal-wearer in 2012. With legitimate chops at 1500 (Olympic and World Championships finalist), and demonstrated strength at longer distances (placed 3rd and 4th at the 10k NCAA Cross Country Championships), the tactical nature of Olympic competition should suit him well. Lomong’s personal best came in his first-ever high-level 5000m and easily cleared the Olympic ‘A’-standard by some 8-plus seconds, offering another suggestion of great potential at longer distances, after his 6th-place finish in the 3000m at the World Indoor Championships this March. His PB of 3:32.20 for 1500m will rank among the best of all 5000m competitors in London, and make him a potent threat over the final lap of any race.

Men’s 5000m – Prelims = Wednesday, August 8th, 05:45 EST
Men’s 5000m – FINAL = Saturday, August 11th, 14:30 EST Read the full article

Illinois’ Evan Jager may have a slim international CV compared to our other Olympians, but that’s to be expected at 23 years of age. Plus, he has something that’s arguably far more important: medal-level talent. He first showed he belonged on the world-stage at the junior level, placing 8th at the World Junior Championships. And his rapid ascendancy through the US — and world — steeple ranks is well-documented: his American Record 8:06.81 came in his fifth steeple ever, and placed him third in a Diamond League race. This, all, in the most technical (read: hardest to learn) middle-distance event. The Kenyans are always formidable in the steeple, but Jager will enter London with the 4th-fastest season-best in the field. Defending World Champion Ezekial Kemboi and reigning European Champion Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad might have an edge on paper, as well — but Jager will still enjoy some of the shortest medal-winning odds of any American distance runner at these Games.

Men’s Steeplechase – Prelims = Friday, August 3rd, 08:00 EST
Men’s Steeplechase – FINAL = Sunday, August 5th, 16:25 EST Read the full article

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better American medal candidate than Shalane Flanagan, 31, a native of Massachusetts. Olympic Bronze in Beijing was followed by another bronze in the 2011 World Cross Country Championships — the deepest distance race on the planet. Although her marathon personal best is not eye-popping after only two attempts at the distance, she will compete as the US Trials Champion, after taking second place in her debut in New York in 2010 — a championship-style race in which she led Kenya’s two strongest Olympic entrants, with just over a mile to go.

Women’s Marathon = Sunday, August 5th, 06:00 EST Read the full article

Irishwoman Fionnuala Britton, 27, has been on a tear over the last eighteen months, setting PBs at 1500, 3000, 5000, and 10.000, with a PB in her former speciality, the steeplechase, just last summer. Long a strong cross country runner, she also broke out in that discipline by becoming the European Champion in December. Earlier this season she placed fourth in the 10.000m at the European Championships. Britton is part of a delegation of twenty-three Irish athletes to take to the track in London.

Women’s 10,000m – FINAL = Friday, August 3rd, 16:25 EST Read the full article