Olympics: Games ambitions founder in Europe

Two leading New Zealand athletes had their hopes of competing at the Athens Olympics dashed within hours of each other yesterday.

Wellington's world cross-country champion, Melissa Moon, was off the pace in the London marathon. Her 24th placing in 2h 44m 41s was more than 12m outside the Athletics New Zealand A standard she needed, 2h 32m 30s.

Then, in another part of Europe a few hours later, former Olympic bronze medal-winning boardsailor Aaron McIntosh's dream of contesting the Tornado yachting class was washed away.

Several other New Zealanders were trying to post qualifying marks in London. The best woman was Canterbury's Rebecca Moore, who was 21st in 2h 43m 50s.

The New Zealand B standard is 2h 36m.

Scott Winton, of Auckland, finished 22nd in the men's race in 2h 17m 40s. He needed a time of 2h 13m to be in the Athens frame.

There was some bright news for Athletics New Zealand, with young Counties Manukau runner Kimberley Smith posting her third Olympic B standard in the 5000m at the Mt Sac Relays meet at Walnut, California.

Smith clocked 15m 09.72s, marginally outside the A standard of 15m 08.7s, in finishing a close second to US arch-rival Shalane Flanagan.

The NZ Olympic Committee has set tougher qualifying standards for athletes than the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

As for McIntosh and his crew Mark Kennedy, they finished 25th in the world championships at Majorca, being pipped for an Olympic trip by one place. Brazilians Mauricio de la Cruz and Henrique Pelicano finished six points ahead of the New Zealanders.

McIntosh won his bronze in Sydney four years ago. He and Kennedy had produced encouraging lead-up form, but in the final race in Majorca could do no better than 30th in the 62-strong fleet.

Yachting New Zealand chief executive Simon Wickham said the result was a huge disappointment for McIntosh and Kennedy.

"Yachting's Olympic qualification system is tough," Wickham said. "Like the Games, it comes down to how you perform at one regatta and sadly this time, for the guys they have narrowly missed out."