World Champion Rob Heffernan (Togher AC) finished in the 23rd place at the prestigious IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Taicang, China on Sunday 4th of May. A day previous Laura Reynolds (Mohill AC) achieved the qualifying standard in the women’s 20km race for the European Track and Field Championships in Zurich.
The world cup event brings together the world’s best race walkers to compete over distances of either 20km or 50km.
Heffernan was joined on the Irish men’s team by Brendan Boyce (Letterkenny AC), Luke Hickey (Leevale AC) and Cian McManamon (Westport AC) as the four Irish athletes tackled the 20km distance in China.
Heffernan was amongst the leaders going through the 10km point; however he lost ground over the second half of the race when the 20km specialists in the race surged ahead. Heffernan continued to walk strong and recorded a time of 1:21.00 for 23rd place, a solid performance when you consider his major focus for the year is the 50km race at the European Track and Field Championships in Zurich in August.
The race was won by Rusian Dmytrenko of the Ukraine in a national record of 1:18.37
After recently recovering from illness Boyce finished in 77th place in the race in a time of 1:26.55. Boyce was also using this race as preparation for the 50km race at the European Championships. Hickey made an aggressive start to the race and was rewarded for his efforts recording a personal best of 1:27.51 to finish in 80th place. McManamon finished a minute behind Hickey in 84th place in a time of 1:28.51. Both Hickey and McManamon were making their debut at world competition level.
Olympian Laura Reynolds was Ireland’s sole representative in the women’s 20km race. Reynolds demonstrated improved form recording a time of 1:32.25 to finish in 37th place. The time was the Leitrim athletes second fastest ever time for the distance and also inside the qualifying standard (1:33.00) for the European Championships in Zurich.
The women’s race was won by Russian athlete Anisya Kirdyapkina in a world leading time of 1:26.31.
