Brave Benita battles on in Ostrava – Athletics Australia – NEWS

An emotionally and physically drained Benita Johnson has finished 17th in the women’s 10,000m at the Golden Spike Grand Prix in Ostrava overnight, closing the book on her quest to qualify for the 10,000m in Beijing.

Johnson, who has already been selected for the marathon, was endeavouring to record her first Olympic qualifying time for the 10,000m, to leave her options open for either event at the Games.

Her time of 33:08.59 was well outside of the required qualifying times of 31.45 (A-standard) and 32.20 (B-standard).

Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, who broke the 5000m world record just six days ago, won in an impressive 31:03.37, out-dashing her older sister Ejegayehu (31:04.05) and another Ethiopian, Meselech Melkamu (31:04.93), who made her debut over the distance.

The strong and determined 29-year-old has endured the toughest six months of her life. Struggling with a knee injury throughout the Australian summer, Johnson has also had to deal with a number of traumatic personal issues off the track, which have taken their toll on the former world cross country champion.

Two weeks ago, her father Tony Willis, tragically passed away after losing a long battle with a degenerative neurological disease.

Hearing of the tragic news shortly after winning the Freihofer’s 5km in New York, Johnson raced home to Australia last week to be with her family and attend her father’s funeral.

She returned to her training base in London on the weekend, and despite her best efforts to prepare for the Ostrava race and soldier on in her father’s memory, was unable to post the required time in extremely difficult circumstances.

Last night’s race was Johnson’s final opportunity to qualify for the 10,000m, with Australian selectors meeting for the final time on June 23.

In other results at the IAAF World Athletics Tour meet in Ostrava…

 – Tamsyn Lewis’ Olympic preparations are heading in the right direction, the world indoor champion recording the fastest time of her European campaign to date, finishing fifth over 800m in 2.00.87. Lucia Klocova, won in 1:59.54, holding off Italy’s Elisa Cusma Piccione (2:00.00) and Russia’s European champion Olga Kotlyarova (2:00.09).

 – Commonwealth Games champion John Steffensen stopped the clock in 46.83 to finish sixth in the 400m, behind Martyn Rooney’s (GBR) winning time of 45.32.
 – In just his third race of the season, Cuban Dayron Robles set a new world record in the 110m Hurdles, clocking 12.87. His performance knocked 0.01 seconds from the previous record of 12.88 set by China's Liu Xiang on 11 July 2007 in Lausanne.

 – Jamaican star Usain Bolt, in his first outing of the season in the 200m and his first since his scintillating 9.72 world 100m record 12 days ago, cruised to a world-leading 19.83.