Completed Event: Track and Field at Bryan Clay Invite on April 16, 2026 ,
Final
Track and Field
Bryan Clay Invite
Iowa State University Athletics
Former Cyclones Ready for Olympic Competition
08.11.2016 | Track and Field
AMES, Iowa – With one week of the 2016 Olympic Games completed in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, it is time for the track and field competition to begin. There will be a Cardinal and Gold tinge to the competition, with four former Cyclones, all of whom were All-Americans during their time in Ames, will be representing their respective countries over the 10 days of athletics competition.
The local interest begins on Friday when three-time NCAA champion Betsy Saina runs for Kenya in the women's 10,000-meter run competition, which will begin at 9:10 a.m. Central Time. Monday, Aug. 15, will see four-time All-American steeplechaser Hillary Bor will represent the United States in the heats of the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase at 8:25 a.m., with an eye on making the final on Wednesday, Aug. 17. The final day of the Olympic Games will see Libya's Mohamed Hrezi and South Sudan's Gour Marial take part in the men's marathon at 7:30 a.m.
A year after making her breakthrough into the Kenyan National Team by qualifying for the World Championships, Saina returns to the forefront for one of the top distance running nations in the world. An 11-time All-American as a Cyclone, Saina earned her spot in the Olympics by finishing second, behind 2015 World Champion Vivian Cheruiyot, at the Kenyan Olympic Trials in June.
Bor, a native Kenyan who became an American citizen after enlisting in the U.S. Army, will be making his Team USA debut at the Olympics. Sgt. Bor has been training as part of the U.S. World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) in Fort Collins, Colorado. Barely inside the top-10 seeds heading into the U.S. Olympic Trials, Bor was able to make his way through the field and into second place with a PR of 8:24.10 to clinch his spot in Rio. At ISU, Bor was a four-time All-American in the steeplechase, including a second-place at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships, and a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American.
Hrezi, who was Libya's flag bearer at the Opening Ceremonies last Friday night, has worked hard to earn his spot in the marathon. A 2013 cross country All-American, Hrezi dropped nearly five minutes off his marathon time within a year, culminating in his 2:18.40 at the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon on May 29. A dual-citizen of the United States and Libya, where his parents are from, Hrezi got confirmation in June that he would represent the African nation at the Olympics.
Marial will be appearing in his second Olympic marathon, but his first representing his home nation of South Sudan. At London 2012, Marial ran as an independent athlete under the Olympic flag due to South Sudan, which gained independence in July 2011, not having formed an Olympic Committee yet. However, Marial was struggling to get the qualifying time needed to return to the Olympics. His final chance to earn a time came at the Gold Coast Airport Marathon in Australia on July 3. He was positioned well to get under the needed time in the final miles, but less than 1.5 miles from the finish line, he collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital due to low blood sugar.
Marial's fate was left to the South Sudan Olympic Committee, who was permitted to give two entries to any runner of its choosing, but they passed up on Marial. A final lifeline came Marial's way on July 21 when the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) offered Marial an exemption to represent South Sudan in the marathon, as he "embodied the true spirit of an Olympian." This allowed Marial the opportunity to carry the flag of South Sudan at the Opening Ceremonies last Friday, a first for South Sudan.
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