Olive walks tall

OLIVE LOUGHNANE was barely off the plane from Beijing last year when she set about planning her onslaught on a medal at this year’s world championships in Berlin.

She had finished seventh in that sensational women’s Olympic 20k walk in which the first 12 all broke the old Olympic record but what amazed her most – apart from her new pb of 1:27:45 – was the fact that she had covered the last 10k quicker than the first half of the race.

That performance told her a lot about herself and provided the platform she needed to take her career to a new level in global terms. Yesterday she reaped rich reward for effort when she claimed Ireland’s fifth medal at the world championships.