DAY 1
July 9th, 2004

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RunMichigan.com's
2004 U.S. Olympic
Track & Field
Team Trials
Day 1 Coverage

Sacramento, CA - July 9th
The first day of competition at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Track & Field had excitement and dissapointment with most of it happening in the last event of the night the 10000 meter run. Meb Keflezighi ran away from the field with a time of 27:36.49 to win the 10000 and make his 2nd event for the 2004 Olympics. Meb is also a member of the U.S. Olympic Marathon team. In February Meb finished runnerup at Olympic Marathon Team Trials in Birmingham, AL. Also making the 10000 team were Abdi Abdirahman (27:55.00) and Daniel Browne (28:07.47). Browne also qualifies for his 2nd event, he finished 3rd in Birmingham at the Olympic Marathon Team Trials. The dissapointment came when Olympian and US 5000 meter record holder Bob Kennedy had to drop out of the 10000 with a bad Achilles. He said " I tweaked my Achilles a couple of weeks ago". Kennedy said he felt it after 1K and it got real bad after 4 laps. Colorado's Dathan Ritzenhein (Rockford, MI) the 2004 NCAA XC Champion who has a stress fracture in his foot, said "The stress fracture really started to hurt in the last two miles. Not bad enough that I couldn't run a six-minute pace, but enough that I couldn't my normal running form." Dathan finished 22nd in 31:13.91, but he has an Olympic A standard. If Meb or Browne decide to only run the Marathon, Dathan could be invited to join the 10000 meter team. Dathan was asked if he would take an invitation to the Olympic Games? "I don't know. But if I had to guess, I probably would." Ryan Shay (East Jordan, MI) finished 10th after a mixup on the last lap. Hansons-Brooks team members Richard Brinker and Brian Sell finished 15th and 17th. check out the Day 1 Photo.