Flanagan finishes sixth in IAAF World Championships

Olympian and former Marblehead High track star Shalane Flanagan finished sixth in the 10,000-meter race at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing on Monday, running 31 minutes, 46.23 seconds. She was the third-highest placing American runner on the women?s side, finishing behind Emily Infield (31:43.49) and Molly Huddle (31:43:58), who finished third and fourth, respectively.
Flanagan, 34, is no stranger to Beijing, having won the bronze in the 2008 Olympics and setting an American record with a time of 31:34.81. That medal, though, may be upgraded to silver. Earlier this month it was learned that Turkish runnerElvan Abeylegesse, who won the silver in 2008 and at the 2007 world championships, was found guilty of doping at the 2007 competition. Abeylegesse has reportedly denied the positive test and has asked for her B sample to be tested. It could take at least four weeks to learn the results of that B sample.
After a stellar cross country and track career at Marblehead High, Flanagan, who also represented the United States at the 2012 Olympics in London, went on to win back-to-back individual cross country national championships for the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2002 and 2003.
She is a regular runner of the Boston Marathon, where she holds the American record with a time of 2:22.02 and a personal-best time of 2:21.14. She was ninth this year in Boston, with a season-best time of 2:27:47. She will miss Boston next year to compete in the 2016 Olympic trials in Los Angeles.