Irish walkers head to Spain as focus turns to Beijing

ROBERT HEFFERNAN and Olive Loughnane will compete in the Gran Permio de La Coruna in Spain at the weekend - both with Beijing on their minds.

After performances at the World Cup of Racewalking in Russia which were nothing short of sensational they have finally turned their attention to the Olympic Games for which Ireland has four racewalkers qualified - 50k specialists Jamie Costin and Colin Griffin the other two.

Olive Loughnane is already into her final training programme for the Games and as she is now in the middle of a block of heavy training her participation in the La Coruna showpiece will be of an exploratory nature.