Magnificent Veale walks away with gold in Lille

KATE VEALE (West Waterford) set a world best time of 21 mins 45.59 secs to win Ireland’s first ever gold medal in the 5k walk at the World Youths Athletics Championships in Lille yesterday.

The 17-year-old Dungarvan girl turned in what one leading coach described as the best race walking performance ever witnessed.

“This was a brilliant performance, no superlatives can do it justice,” insisted Ray Flynn, who is a leading race walking coach and Chair of High Performance with Athletics Ireland.