The European Race Walking Cup will take place on May 19th in Dudince, Slovakia. Athletics Ireland are sending a team of seven walkers to the event.
Robert Heffernan (Togher AC ),who placed fourth in the 2012 Olympics, will be looking to better his season’s best time of 1:21:59 which he set down earlier this year in the 20km walk in Lugano, Switzerland.
Cian McManamon (Westport AC), recorded 1:27:35 at the same event and will be hoping to get closer to the Athletics Ireland World Championships A qualifying standard of 1:22:30.
Olympian Brendan Boyce (Letterkenny AC) achieved the B standard for the World Championships earlier in April, which sets him up nicely to deliver a good performance in the European Cup.
Micheal Doyle (Tara AC) will be the only Irish competitor in the Senior men’s 50km walk. Evan Lynch and Luke Hickey (Leevale AC) will both be taking part in the Junior men’s 10km race. Hickey recently achieved a time of 43:52 for the 10km walk – a huge improvement on his previous best of 46:31.
This time was also well inside the standard of 44:30 for the European Junior championships which take place in Italy in July.
Olympian Laura Reynolds, (Mohill AC), will be the only woman competing on the team. Reynolds will be racing in the Senior women’s 20km walk.
2013 European Race Walking Cup Team
| EVENT | NAMES | COACH | CLUB |
| 20km Senior (M) | Robert Heffernan | Togher AC | |
| 20km Senior (M) | Brendan Boyce | Robert Heffernan | Letterkenny AC |
| 20km Senior (M) | Cian McManamon | Micheal Doyle | Westport AC |
| 50km Senior (M) | Micheal Doyle | Daniel Jacinto Garzon | Tara AC |
| 10km Junior (M) | Evan Lynch | Frank Lynch | Clonmel AC |
| 10km Junior (M) | Luke Hickey | Robert Heffernan | Leevale AC |
| 20km Senior (W) | Laura Reynolds | Colin Griffin | Mohill AC |
ENDS
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