Troop On Track For Marathon

The Sunday Age

Sunday August 10, 2008

Brent Diamond

AUSTRALIAN marathon runner Lee Troop, right, put the finishing touches on his preparation for the Beijing Olympics, helping Geelong to third place at the Sandown Relay in round eight of the XCR '08 Series.

Troop ran his two-kilometre leg in a time of 17 minutes 56 seconds and said he was "reasonably happy" with his last performance before making his way to Beijing for the marathon in two weeks' time.

Troop said the hardest factor to get a grasp of in Beijing will be the climate - and yesterday's race, in only 11 degrees, wasn't the ideal preparation. But he has been training in a heat chamber in Ballarat to help him acclimatise to the conditions.

The series consists of Australia's best cross-country and road-racing athletes, but some other Olympic athletes were missing, including Collis Birmingham (Ballarat City, 5000 metres), Craig Mottram (Geelong region, 5000) Lisa Jane Weightman (Knox, marathon) and Kate Smyth (Glenhuntly, marathon).

Box Hill continued its domination of the event yesterday, finishing first ahead of Sandringham, while Glenhuntly took out the women's event. -- BRENT DIAMOND

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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