Ashley Whitney is a Nashville native and resident who won a swimming gold medal in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. That was in the women’s 800-meter freestyle relay. Saturday she finished first in a much longer race, the 4.5-mile option in the ninth annual Chattanooga Rat Race in the Tennessee River. The 34-year-old Whitney covered the distance in 1 hour, 15 minutes, 28.4 seconds. The men’s winner was William Boldt, 54, from the Auburn Masters Swimmers in 1:17:42.7. Ooltewah resident Tom Hancock from the McCallie River Rats was Boldt’s runner-up in 1:19:27.3, and Allison Ware of Franklin was the second-place woman in 1:20:08.3. Jennifer Kuklinski, 31, of Birmingham won the 2.4-mile race Saturday in 46:25.1 with 52-year-old Keitaro Mikami of Roswell, Ga., the men’s winner in 46:43.1. The 2.4-mile runners-up were Kay Baker of Chattanooga and the River Rats in 48:00.8 and Casey Fannin of Birmingham in 48:18.5.
Track & Field
• Preston Elwell broke his Signal Mountain High School record in the javelin by more than seven feet with a second-place throw of 173 feet, 8 inches Friday in the Emerging Elite category of the New Balance Outdoor Nationals at Greensboro, N.C. The New Balance is the nation’s pre-eminent high school track and field postseason invitational meet, including more than 3,000 athletes. Elwell was 10th in the javelin with a 162-0 throw at the Great Southwest Track and Field Classic in Albuquerque on June 7 and won the AAU district qualifier in Montgomery, Ala., last Sunday with a 167-2.
Golf
• Class A high school state champion Justin Hickman of Chickamauga plus Jacob Morgan of LaFayette, Ethan Hayes of Rocky Face, Jackson Quarles of Chatsworth, Alex Hitchcock of Ranger, Gunter Jordon and Brock Stewart of Calhoun and Davis Smith, Davis Kirk, Landon Hicks, Addison Lambert and Allen Behr of Dalton are among the 135 young golfers entered in the Georgia Junior Championship being held Monday through Wednesday at Brunswick Country Club. The field will be cut to the low 70 and ties and anyone else within 10 shots of the lead after Tuesday’s round.