Washington alums Amy-Eloise Markovc & Izzi Batt-Doyle 9th & 15th in 5000m heat at Olympics...

TOKYO--Washington alum Amy-Eloise Markovc (photo by Jeff Cohen) set a new personal best as she finished ninth in her heat of the women's 5000 meters Friday night at Olympic Stadium.

Markovc, who attended Glacier Peak HS in Snohomish, ran 15:03.22 to improve on her previous personal best of 15:05.96 set in May in Boston, despite the hot and humid conditions.

In the same heat, her Husky teammate Izzi Batt-Doyle of Australia, finished 15th in 15:21.65.

Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia won the heat in 14:55.74, and Stanford alum Elise Cranny of the Portland based Bowerman Track Club was fourth in a season best 14:56.14 to get one of the five automatic qualifying spots for the final Monday night.

Looking ahead to Saturday's competition, Washington alum Gianna Woodruff of Panama will run in heat 3 of the women's 400 hurdles at 9:16 am (5:16 pm Friday in Seattle).

From a US perspective, the biggest disappointment was the disqualification of the heavily favored mixed 4 x 400 meter relay team for passing out of the zone.

However, according to a tweet by respected Olympic reporter David Woods, the US team is appealing because officials placed second runner Lynna Irby on the wrong exchange line.

I'm told Team USA is appealing DQ in mixed 4x400 relay because officials put No. 2 runner Lynna Irby at wrong exchange line. So what looked like Irby's error might be official's error. Stay tuned.

— David Woods (@DavidWoods007) July 30, 2021

In the one final contested Friday night, Selemon Barega of Ethiopia won the men's 10000 in 27:43.22, followed by the Ugandan duo of Joshua Cheptegei (27:43.63) and Jacob Kiplimo (27:43.88).

Stanford alum Grant Fisher was fifth in 27:46.39 as the top American, while Portland alum Woody Kincaid was 15th in 28:11.01, and Colorado grad Joe Klecker was 16th in 28:14.18.

Results and start lists are available through the home page of the World Athletics Tokyo Olympics microsite.

NOTE: The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, USA Track & Field, British Athletics, Athletics Australia & World Athletics contributed to this report.

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