Aug. 15, 2008

Beijing - Former Tar Heel Shalane Flanagan won the bronze medal Friday in the Women's 10,000-meter run. Flanagan, turned in an American record effort of 30:22.22, to become only the second American woman to medal in the 10k event since it became part of the Olympics in 1988. In 1992 Lynn Jennings also won the bronze medal.

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, the two-time 10,000m world champion, won gold, in 29:54.56 an Olympic record. Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey took silver in 29:56.34. The two became only the second and third women to run the 10k in under 30 minutes; Wang Junxia of China set the world record, 29:31.78, in 1993.

The other Americans in the race did not turn in similar efforts, Kara Goucher ended up 10th. Amy Begley Yoder crossed the line in 26th place. Flanagan, who had a case of food poisioning earlier in the week, said her strategy was thus to take it out easy and then try to see what she had left. Or, as she described it, "fall asleep for as many laps as you can and just give it a go."

Seeing what she had left, she lost count of where she was in the race "I just kept lapping people and I couldn't keep track of who's who." Flanagan, who particpated in the 28th Olympiad in Athens, will also race in the Women's 500-meter run August 19th.

In her first ever Olympic appearance, Alice Schmidt turned in a time of 2:02:33 in Round 1 of the Women's 800-meter run Friday in Beijing. Schmidt's time was not good enough to advance to Saturday's Semifinals of the Women's 800-meter run. The former Tar Heel placed 27th out of 40 athletes who finished the 800-meter run Friday. She also placed sixth out of seven athletes in the second heat of the race, as the 800-meter run was broken into six heats.

Mozambique's Maria Mutola won Round 1 of the Women's 800-meter narrowly defeating Great Britain's Marilyn Okoro with a time of 1:58:91. A total of 24 athletes will advance to the race's Semifinals Saturday.