NOTE ON THE NEWS - CROSS COUNTRY LEGEND PAT PORTER DIES IN PLANE CRASH



News outlets in the American Southwest are reporting that eight-time USA cross country champion Pat Porter was killed when a plane he was piloting went off 

a runway in Sedona, Ariz., and burst into flames yesterday (Thursday).  Porter, a two-time Olympian at 10,000m who finished in the top-10 at the IAAF World 

Cross Country Championships four times, was 53.



Details about the crash remain sketchy, but local police said that there were three people on board the plane and none survived.  An Albuquerque television 

station said that there were two children on the plane with Porter (Porter lived in Albuquerque).  Local news outlets have not been able to confirm the identities

of the children, but Porter's daughter was not on the plane, according to the Albuquerque Journal newspaper.



Porter was born in Wadena, Minn., and went to Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colo.  He ran for Adams State College in Alamosa, Colo., under coach Joe Vigil.

 Porter's best times on the track were 7:51.00 for 3000m, 13:33.91 for 5000m and 27:46.80 for 10,000m according to the respected statistics site, Tilastopaja.net.

 But Porter did his best running over hill and dale, winning eight consecutive national cross country titles from 1982 to 1989.



Porter was married to former high jumper Trish Porter (born Trish King) who finished second at the 1988 USA Olympic Trials and jumped in the Seoul Olympics.

 She had a personal best of 196cm.  The couple have two children, son Connor (15) and daughter Shannon (11).



All of us at Race Results Weekly offer our deepest sympathies to the Porter family.



Links to coverage: 

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/07/27/news/plane-of-olympian-crashes-in-ariz.html 

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S2705252.shtml?cat=504