Emily Kearney set to compete at British Olympic Trials
MANCHESTER, United Kington (June 24, 2021) – Fresh off one of the greatest single-seasons in NAIA track & field history, Milligan graduate student Emily Kearney is set to compete at the Müller British Athletic Championships, which also serves as Great Britain's Olympic trials.
Kearney is one of 18 competitors scheduled to compete in the 5000m final on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EST). Kearney holds the fifth-fastest time among the field this season.
Kearney, a Wirral, England native, earned multiple invites to the British Olympic trials while at Milligan during the 2020-21 academic year.
Kearney joined the Buffs as a grad transfer after graduating from Appalachian Athletic Conference member SCAD Atlanta in 2020. She had one season of athletic eligibility remaining after the cancellation of the 2020 outdoor track season due to covid-19.
During her historic 2021 outdoor track season, Kearney set NAIA all-time records in the 5k (15:39.65) and 10k (33:09.65). She captured NAIA national titles and broke national championship meet records in both events. She also finished the year with the second-fastest 1500 (4:26.46) and fourth-best 800 (2:12.66) on the NAIA leaderboards.
With her sub-16-minute 5000m time at CIU, Kearney met the entry standard and earned an invite to the Müller British Athletics Championships.
She also earned an invitation to the marathon trials in March after winning the Mortgage Network Half Marathon last December with a time of 1:12:21. Kearney ended up declining the invitation, opting to prepare for and run at the NAIA national championships.
Her accolades from 2021 include USTFCCCA NAIA Women's Track Athlete of the Year, NAIA Most Outstanding Championship Performer and AAC Runner of the Year honors.
"Starting with last fall, when Emily ran so well at the Half-Marathon distance, she has just continued to climb toward relevance at this next level," said Milligan track & field head coach Chris Layne. "She is extremely driven, extremely passionate about the sport and a true pleasure to coach. This is just the beginning for her and I'm certain we'll see her stay on this trajectory through the next Olympic cycle."
The Müller British Athletic Championships is a closed championship event held at the Manchester Regional Arena. It also functions as the Olympic qualifier for Great Britain. To qualify for Tokyo, Kearney would have to meet the Olympic standard (15:10) in the event.