Warm welcome for silver medallist Gillian

IT was a hectic weekend of welcome home parties for world championship silver medallist Gillian O’Sullivan.

The 27-year-old, the only Irish medal winner at the IAAF world championships in Paris, received the warmest reception at a bonfire made by 150 neighbours at Minish, outside Killarney, yesterday and everyone waited their turn to hug her, kiss her and shake the race walker's hand.

"I'm really happy about this," she said. "These are the people who saw me training along the road down the years and they're now sharing my success. My neighbours have always been amongst my best supporters.