Olympic qualifier for Ava

Monday 16 January 2012

Cardiff's Irish international Ava Hutchinson has gained the marathon qualification time for this year's London Olympic Games.

Running in only her second marathon, in Houston, Texas, yesterday, Hutchinson clocked two hours, 35 minutes and 33 seconds – comfortably inside the 2:37:00 A-standard for London, and good enough for fourth place in a fairly high-quality elite field.

The 28-year-old Ava has clearly learned from her debut marathon in Dublin last October, where she was also on course for a sub-2:37 time but faded in the final miles to finish in 2:42:48. She immediately set her sights on a second attempt, and with the support of the Dublin Marathon Mission made the long journey to Houston yesterday determined to qualify.

Ava is Ireland’s fastest qualifier (her Irish clubmate Byrne ran 2:36:23 in Dublin, and was the first to make the A- standard).

For the last year she’s been based at Loughborough University. Last February she won the Irish national cross country title, and followed that up in September with the national half-marathon title, in her debut at that distance, finishing in 74:30.

Ava was paced during the race (which also counted as the official USA Olympic trial) by partner Alex Hains who was running in his first marathon and finshed in 26th place with the same time as Ava.

Many congratulations to Ava.