Elmira Fan wrote:
Hard to say what color.
Picture all of her hometown fans gathered at Notre Dame High (her alma mater) cheering her on to a medal. Seemed like a long shot a few years ago but not now.
She is also the nicest girl out there and has been trained exquisitely.
Very exciting.
My first instinct was to say no way, simply because her 1:08x half marathon is good, but it's not super impressive when you consider there are several women capable of running minutes faster. However:
- Some the top road half/marathoners don't race on the track.
- The winner of the 10K and 5K does not automatically go to the Ethiopians anymore.
- Huddle's half marathon is just as fast as Shalane and Kara when they medaled and Huddle's half marathon was run on a slower course.
- Any athlete who can run a sub-31 10K and is a 4:26 miler cannot be counted out in a championship 10K.
With all of that said, I definitely wouldn't say Huddle will medal in Rio, but I wouldn't call her a long shot either. With out knowing who has fully committed to the roads or the 5k, the ladies listed below I will rate over Huddle.
Sally Kipyego, Dibaba, Defar, Florence Kiplagat, Linet Masai, Gladys Cherono and I expect Jordan Hasay to be competitor of Huddle this years as well.