Austinite and former Longhorn Leonel Manzano is representing the United States at the Beijing Olympics, running the 1,500 meters in track & field. You can read his diary of the experience at The Highlander newspaper in his hometown of Marble Falls.
I’ll provide updates on track & field athletes with Austin and/or University of Texas connections here at The Score as the Olympics continue (although not immediately after they compete, since I’m waiting to watch NBC’s tape-delayed coverage just like you. That’s why I’m not yet providing an update on Manzano’s first heat, which was run at 6:28am this morning, Austin time).
To read my interviews with Manzano and some other Austin tracksters, click here.
UPDATE: Well, you’d think KXAN would have the good sense not to ruin their own tape-delayed coverage, so I thought they would be the one news source I could trust not to reveal results, but nope: Roger Wallace just told viewers the results of Manzano’s 1,500 heat, both on KXAN’s regular sportscast and then again on their “Olympic Zone” show. Grrr. I promise not to do he same to you.
UPDATE 2: Well, they didn’t even show Manzano’s heat, so my griping was for nothing. So I can now tell you: He qualified for the semifinals, albeit just barely. The first five in each heat, plus the four next fastest times overall, advanced. He ran a time of 3 minutes, 36.67 seconds to place sixth in his heat, his fastest of the season, to just grab one of the time qualifiers. The semifinals will be run at 9:05am (Austin time) on Sunday.
This article appears in August 15 • 2008.