Fatuma Roba, the 1996 champion, was never a factor. But Simon does not give up, and cuts the lead to 26 seconds. As they hit the track, Simon is flying and cuts the lead to 8 seconds, making it the closest women's Olympic marathon in history. Clark was 19th and she took many prominent hides. Well, Anier Garcia of Cuba, Colin Jackson of Great Britian, Florian Schwartzkoff of Germany and Mark Crear, Allen Johnson and Terrance Trammell of US all move on.
Times are slow, probably due to cool conditions.
Lars Riedel looked very good. Romas Ubartas did not look good at all, and did not qualify for the final. NBC coverage, while it did break up the 100 meter semis over four hours, was pretty good. We did get to see the heptathlon and both 800 meter qualfiying rounds as well as the 400 meters. Still have not heard squat on the 10,000 qualifying, which does kill me.