Former Kent State track and field athlete Kim Kreiner qualified Monday for the 2008 U.S. Olympic team in the women’s javelin event.

Kreiner qualified for the team with a throw of 183 feet, 5 inches at the United States Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore.

That throw length put Kreiner, who had Tommy John surgery last month, fourth among the athletes at the trials. Kreiner qualified over the second- and third-place finishers because they didn’t have an Olympic qualifying throw length of 198 feet, 6 inches in the past, while Kreiner did.

Kreiner, a 2000 Kent State graduate, is the U.S. record holder in women’s javelin, having made a throw of 64.19 meters – over 210 feet – in May 2007.

The 2008 Summer Olympics will begin Aug. 8 in Beijing.