2008 - 50K OLYMPIC TRIALS RACE WALK

"It's the trials," Marco Evoniak said. Three simple words that captured the essence of the day. In any race a multitude of stories unfold simultaneously, however at the Olympic Trials, those stories are magnified with an intensity second to none.

In the "Good Ole Days" a top three finish meant that you achieved a birth on the US Olympic team. However, today there are additional time standards that must be met if the US is to send one, two, or three walkers in the 50K to Beijing. As the walkers gathered at the start line, only the injured Kevin Eastler held the time standard needed for the US to send a walker to the Olympics. With the projected heat and humidity of the day it wasn't likely anyone would achieve the standard at the trials. The race instead would be one for position. Based on the rank order of finish, athlete's achieving the time standard would make the team. Further complicating the issue is that there are two standards. In order for the US to send two or three athletes to the Olympic Games, two or three athletes who started the trials race must walk a 50K in less than four hours in an IAAF sanctioned race. In order for the US to send one athlete to the Olympic Games, one athlete who started the trials race must walk a 50K in less than four hours and five minutes in an IAAF sanctioned race. This means if the winner of the race doesn't achieve a standard, racers finishing after him could displace him for a berth on the Olympic team. Where it gets messy is the situation where walkers who didn't finish the race, for either DQ or DNF, walk an A standard while a finisher of the race has only a B standard. Who goes? Vince Peters, USATF race walk chairman says that non finishers will not displace finishers with a time standard. If you think there aren't any other permutations to complicate the selection, you would be wrong. One other possibility is that no one finishing the race makes an A or B standard. This is highly unlikely, but if it happens, since Eastler already has a B standard, he would likely be named to the 50K Olympic Team.

With all that said, let's move on to the race. Instead of highlighting a straight chronological recap of the day’s events, here is a montage of photographs highlighting many of the stories that unfolded over the long hot sticky laps. Each story contains its own page, click and enjoy!

The start of the race.	Philip Dunn, heavy favorite.

Matt Boyles, the challenger.	The battle between Dunn and Boyles.

The Parkside Duo stride by stride.	Ray Sharp, USATF comeback of the decade?	Marco Evoniac competitor from how many trials?

Theron Kissinger	John Soucheck	Mark Green

Curt Clausen proving he is da man!	Miscellaneous Other Shots

Yariv Pomeranz	Dave McGovern	Seaman made a brief appearnce with Kevin Eastler (Not shown)

1) Philip Dunn , 4:12:55
2) Matt Boyles, 4:14:30
3) Ben Shorey, 4:27:14
4) Steve Quirke, 4:27:15
5) Ray Sharp, 4:49:50
6) Marco Evoniac, 4:53:39
7) Theron Kissinger, 5:04:15
8) John Soucheck, 5:10:22
9) Mark Green, 5:13:22
10) Curt Clausen, 5:17:50