Olympic Qualifying Time for AGSI’s Taylor Milne

AGSI’s Field Researcher and 2008 Olympian, Taylor Milne, has attained the Olympic qualifying time for the 2016 Olympics

On May 2, 2015, Taylor competed at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, held at Stanford University in California. Taylor ran in the 3000m Steeplechase, an event he has adopted in recent years, alongside some of the fastest competitors in the world. Taylor finished fourth with a time of 8:25.46, less than two seconds from first place and bettering the qualifying standard of 8:28.00 for this summer’s World Championships in Beijing, China and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The window in which athletes can achieve the Olympic standard qualifying times begins on May 1, 2015, after the standards are announced, until July 11, 2016 and the Canadian Trials are the last chance to get them. At the Canadian trials the top three runners will be selected to represent Canada at the Olympics, as long as they achieve Canada’s Olympic Qualifying times.

Canadian Trials competitions for the 2015 IAAF World Championships will happen later this year at the Canadian Track and Field Championships, July 2 - 5 in Edmonton. This is where the team for the 2015 IAAF World Championships will be selected. Canadian Olympic Trials will also be held in Edmonton, dates yet to be announced.

Taylor also raced at Occidental College in Los Angeles, in the HOKA ONE / ONE Middle Distance Classic on May 14, 2105. Hundreds of the top middle-distance runners competed in another attempt to post World Championship and Olympic qualifying times. Taylor finished second place, just behind the Canadian Record Holder, at a time of 8:25.72.

Go Taylor!