US World Cup star Matt Reed’s 10th place finish Sunday at the Madrid World Cup jumped the U.S. men back to three precious Olympic triathlon slots by a razor-thin margin.

With Russia’s Dimitry Polyansky finishing 15th and Australia’s Brendan Sexton dropping out due to bone-chilling, freezing rain, the men’s Olympic national qualifying points race has come down to what amounts to a photo finish for the top eight nations earning three Olympic slots.

The nerve wracking battle will all be settled June 8 at the ITU World Championship in Vancouver; the final event to decide which nations will get how many Olympic slots.

The International Triathlon Union’s complex points structure for Olympic national team qualification breaks down to this key metric – the top eight nations measured by the points accumulated by their third-ranked athlete – get three Olympic slots. The next few nations qualify just two athletes for the Olympic triathlon in Beijing.

Going into Madrid, Australia stood seventh in the Olympic national qualification chase with its third-ranked triathlete Brendan Sexton owning 2507 points.

Russia stood eighth with its third-ranked triathlete Dimitry Polyansky’s 2499 points.

The US men, represented by Hunter Kemper’s 2359 points, stood 9th, on the outside looking in for that precious third Olympic slot. .

With Kemper currently nursing lingering injuries, U.S. hopes for a full Olympic men’s contingent fell to red-hot Matt Reed, whose 463 Olympic national qualifying points at the Richards Bay, South Africa World Cup two weeks ago moved him up to 2304, well in range of Polyanksy and Sexton.

Despite a substandard swim in Madrid, Reed held tough on the bike and run, finishing 10th in 1:58:09. While this finish is well off his recent hot streak which included wins at Miami, the second US Men’s Olympic Trials at Tuscaloosa, and St. Anthony’s, plus a second to Daniel Unger at Richards Bay, it was enough to move the U.S. back to 7th place in Olympic national qualifying.

With his 10th place finish, Reed advanced to 2552 in Olympic national qualifying points, vaulting the U.S. from 9th to 7th. Polyanksy, who finished 15th, garnered 168 points, but had to drop his previous lowest score of 126 points since he has well over the allowed nine finishes. Polyansky’s net gain was thus 42 points, so his total dropped Russia from seventh to eighth with a total of 2541 points.

Australia’s Brendan Sexton has to be the most disappointed. When he dropped out due to abike crash and earned no points, his point total remained at 2507 and Australia dropped to 9th in the Olympic national qualifying.

As a result, Australia’s third nominated male triathlete Greg Bennett is currently out of a start in Beijing.

“I got done what I needed to,” Reed said in a post-race telephone interview. “The trip to Spain was a success for the USA. Now I can race the World Championship in Vancouver according to my game plan. So I will need to be aware of the Russians and a few other guys. But I am still 100 percent committed to and focused on Beijing.”

In reality, the points totals are so close that the current margins mean virtually nothing. With Vancouver offering double points – 1000 for a win, 496 for 10th, 227 for 20th and 104 for 30th, the USA’s current margin of 9 points over the Russians and 45 points over Australia can be easily erased. In fact, Russia’s Ivan Vasiliev earned 463 points for his second place finish to Madrid winner Javier Gomez Sunday and vaulted him to 2279 points in the Olympic national qualifying sweepstakes. Now Vasiliev, too, is within striking distance of Reed, Polyansky, and Sexton.

With Kemper reportedly saving himself for the final US Olympic qualifying at the Hy-Vee World Cup in Des Moines, the pressure is likely all on the wide shoulders of Reed.

So, stat geeks, keep your calculators humming.