Canada’s Melissa Bishop makes Olympic “A” Standard

Melissa Bishop of Egansville, Ont. ran the first 800m "A" standard of the year Friday night at the Prefontaine Classic.

Melissa Bishop of Egansville, Ont. ran the first 800m “A” standard of the year Friday night at the Prefontaine Classic. Her time of 1:59.82 was good for third place behind Americans Greena Gall and Alysia Montano, who led the race from start to finish.

Bishop sat comfortably at the back of the pack in the first 400m, and then made a strong move into second place at 600m and held her place into the final turn, but was out-kicked by Gall in the straight-away to the finish.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScK_w4Ih4PM[/youtube]

Jessica Smith of North Vancouver placed fifth with a 2:00.61, a personal best, just shy of the Olympic “B” standard of 2:00.30.

In getting under the “A” standard of 1:59.90, Bishop now only needs to place within the top three at the Canadian Trials in Calgary at the end of June in order to guarantee her place on the Olympic team.

Previous to running the “A” standard for the first time, Bishop was the only Canadian this year to have achieved the “B” standard.

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