BEIJING, CHINA (August 18, 2008) Former Rice Owl All-America track and field athlete Funmi Jimoh (Rice, 2007), a member of the U.S. Olympic team, begins competition Monday evening in the women's long jump at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in Beijing, China.
Jimoh has the fifth-best long jump mark in the world for 2008 at 6.91m (22-8).
Jimoh will jump sixth in Group A starting at 8:40 p.m. (Central). Her coach Jim Bevan, Rice University head women's track and field coach, accompanies her.
There are 21 competitors in Group A and in Group B and each will get three attempts to place in the top 12. The top 12 performers will then advance to the semi-finals on Aug. 22 with the top eight advancing to the finals that same day.
A graduate of Dulles High School in Sugar Land, Texas, Jimoh became the first Rice women's track and field athlete to make a U.S. squad when she jumped 6.72m/22-0.75 in front of a crowd of over 20,000 fans at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. Former Rice shot put champion Regina Cavanaugh was an alternate on both the 1984 and 1988 teams.
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