COX GETS OLYMPIC TRIALS QUALIFYING TIME IN SOLO RUN By David Monti (c) 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved September 15, 2007
Josh
Cox qualified for this third USA Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon
today with a solo victory at the 11th United States Air Force Marathon
at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Cox, 32,
clocked a course record 2:19:29 to finish more than 11 minutes ahead of
runner-up, Chuck Engle. His performance was well under the "A"
qualifying standard of 2:20:00 which will guarantee him an
expenses-paid trip to the Trials in New York City on Nov. 3, just 49
days away.
At 24 Cox was one of the youngest qualifers for the
2000 Trials held in Pittsburgh. He finished 18th in 2:22:30. After
that race he started to train under Italian marathon coach Dr. Gabriele
Rosa in a special Fila program to discover marathon talent in the
United States. The relationship appeared to pay off quickly when Cox
ran a surprising 2:13:55 personal best at the LaSalle Bank Chicago
Marathon in October, 2000.
But Cox would never run that fast
again. In two more appearances at both Boston and Chicago, he never
ran faster than 2:15:01. He seemed to be on the upswing in 2004 when
he placed seventh at the USA Olympic Trials in 2:15:18, but he did not
compete in any major races in either 2005 or 2006. Today's race in
Ohio was his first significant performance since competing in the IAAF
World Half-Marathon Championships in New Delhi, India, in October 2004
(he finished 47th).
According to USA Track & Field, Cox is
the 169th man to qualify for the Marathon Trials race in New York, and
the 60th to make it under the "A" standard (the "B" standard is
2:22:00). The top-3 finishers at the Trials will earn provisional
berths on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.
