LITTLE ROCK – The Trojan track team will be represented at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, as former Little Rock distance runner Natasha Wodak has qualified to run the 10K race for her native Canada on Friday morning.
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Wodak, of Surrey, B.C., ran cross country and distance track races for Little Rock in 1999 and 2000. She is just the second ever Trojan to make the Olympics. Dawn Williams-Sewer was the first in 1996, running the 800 for Dominica.
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Despite not running for the Trojans in 16 years, Wodak's name still appears in multiple places in the school's record book. She was named All-Sun Belt in cross country in 1999 after placing ninth at the league's championship meet. She also remains 17th all-time in program history in the cross country 5K with a time of 18:26 in September 2000.
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Wodak's 3K time of 10:21.56 is also still the ninth-fastest time in program history outdoors. Since leaving Little Rock, Wodak has improved her 3K personal best (indoors) by more than a minute, racing to a finish of 9:02.57 in 2013.
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Wodak's 10K personal best is 31:41.59 – the current Canadian record – set in 2015 in Stanford, Calif. She also holds the Canadian record in the 8K.
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The 10K race in Rio is set to go off Friday at 9:10 a.m. central. The race will air live on NBC.
