Wolverines to Compete in British, Canadian Olympic Trials
6/24/2021 4:39:00 PM | Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- As the U.S. Olympic Trials enter their final weekend in Eugene, Ore., several current and former University of Michigan track and field standouts will be looking to achieve their Olympic dreams elsewhere around the world.
Led by Olympians and former NCAA champions Cindy (Ofili) Sember and Tiffany (Ofili) Porter, a contingent of five Wolverines will compete at the 2021 Muller British Athletics Championships in Manchester, England, this Friday through Sunday (June 25-27), while former NCAA champion Ben Flanagan will pursue his first Olympics berth at the 2021 Athletics Canada Olympic Trials on Saturday (June 26) in Montreal, Quebec.
Sember and Porter, who finished fourth and seventh, respectively, in the 2016 Rio Olympics 100-meter hurdles final, will be joined by multiple-time All-American hammer throw alum Joe Ellis and a pair of current 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships competitors in 110-meter hurdler Josh Zeller and 1,500-meter runner Tom Dodd.
Inclusion in the Olympics delegation can be automatically earned by finishing top-two in a final at the Trials and either achieving the Olympics qualifying standard or a high enough World Event Ranking to merit an invitation. A third individual can be subjectively selected by British Athletics so long as they also meet the qualifying criteria.
All Sember and Porter -- two of the fastest women in the world this year -- would need to do to make the team would be to finish top two in the final. Behind a career-best 12.53 seconds and numerous other quick performances, Sember is No. 10 in the World Event Rankings. Not far behind is Porter, who has a best of 12.57 this year, at No. 18.
They will compete in the semifinals on Sunday (June 27) at noon local time (7 a.m. ET), with both likely to advance to the deciding final at 3:20 p.m. local time (10:20 a.m. ET).
Dodd will be the first international Wolverine in action as he is set for the 1,500-meter semifinals Friday (June 25) at 7:55 p.m. local time (2:55 p.m. ET). On the strength of multiple 3:57 miles indoors and an equivalent 3:39.60 1,500 meters outdoors.
Dodd is 13th among British men in the latest World Event Rankings compiled by World Athletics, which take into account multiple performances both indoors and outdoors over the past three years. He will be looking to bounce back from a fall he suffered midway through the semifinals of the NCAA Outdoor Championships earlier this month.
Should he advance to the final, he would compete Saturday (June 26) at 3:35 p.m. local time (10:35 a.m. ET).
Current Michigan teammate Zeller also will compete on Saturday in as many as two rounds of the 110-meter hurdles, with the semifinals scheduled for 1:08 p.m. local time (8:08 a.m. ET) and a final set for 6:05 p.m. local time (1:05 p.m. ET).
Per the World Event Rankings, Zeller is ranked sixth among his countrymen in the 110-meter hurdles, with a bulk of that rank built on a string of 13.6-second performances throughout the postseason en route to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Like Dodd, he went tumbling to the track in the national semifinals, and with him went his hopes of All-America honors.
Dodd and Zeller are well outside of the range to receive Olympic invitations based on their World Event Rankings (Nos. 150 and 152, respectively), and would need to achieve the Olympic qualifying standards of 3:35.00 and 13.32, respectively, to be considered.
The same would be true of multiple-time All-American and Big Ten champion hammer thrower Ellis, who is entered to compete in his signature event on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. ET). Ellis has competed sparingly in 2021 with a best of 69.98m (229 feet, 7 inches), and enters ranked eighth among British competitors in the World Event Rankings. To secure a berth, he would need to finish top two and achieve the 77.50m (254-3) entry standard. He owns a personal-best and school-record 73.80m (242-1) from the 2018 season.
Meanwhile in Montreal, Flanagan also will be chasing the qualifying standard for the 5,000-meter distance. Competing Saturday at 8 p.m. ET at the Canadian Championships, Flanagan will be in pursuit of the 13:13.50 Olympic qualifying standard that would go a long way in earning him a spot on the Canadian team in Tokyo. He is fifth among Canadians on the World Event Rankings list for 5,000 meters, with three men ahead of him having already achieved the qualifying standard.
Unlike the trials for the United States and Great Britain, the finishing place at the Canadian Trials is not necessarily tied to selection for the Olympic team this summer, due to COVID-19. Factors that will go into making the final selections include world and domestic rankings, current fitness, proven ability to perform on demand, finishing position at the Trials, and head-to-head results against others in consideration.
Players Mentioned
