Aug. 7, 2012
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame alums Molly Huddle and Selim Nurudeen advanced in their respective track events on Tuesday morning at Olympic Stadium in London, England.
Huddle advanced to the finals of the 5,000m run with a fifth place finish in heat two. The 2006 graduate finished the race in a season-best time of 15:02.26 to qualify eighth for the finals. The finals will be held on Friday at 3:05 ET.
Huddle, the first Notre Dame women’s distance runner to earn an Olympic berth, is making her Olympic debut and is the American record holder at 5,000 meters (14:44.76, set in 2010), in addition to winning a national title in 2011. The 10-time All-American Huddle also is aiming to challenge the best-ever finish by a U.S. runner in the women’s 5,000 meters, currently a ninth-place finish by both Lynn Jennings (1996) and Kara Goucher (2008).
Nurudeen took second in his heat of the 110m hurdles, finishing in a personal-best time of 13.51. Competing for Nigeria, Nurudeen (’05) qualified 16th overall for Wednesday’s semifinals. The semis get underway at 2:15 p.m. ET, with the finals slated for 4:15 p.m. ET later that day.
Nurudeen, a 15-time all-BIG EAST Conference performer and multi-time All-American at Notre Dame, is representing Nigeria for the second consecutive Olympics, having advanced to the 110-meter hurdle quarterfinals in 2008.
The respective races for the Notre Dame runners will be shown live on-line at nbcolympics.com and may be shown on a tape-delayed basis during NBC’s coverage later in the day.
For more information on Notre Dame participants at the 2012 London Olympics, visit the special Notre Dame Olympics microsite (und.com/olympics), the official London Olympics web site (london2012.com) or the official NBC Olympics web site (nbcolympics.com).
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