Magnificent Veale walks away with gold in Lille
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.
“Kate stayed with the leading group through the first two kilometres along with the Chinese, the Russians and the Italian but once she made her move nobody could live with her.
“This was the best walking performance I have ever seen — the way she dominated the race, her technique was flawless and she was absolutely brilliant. It was not just her winning that was impressive it was her entire technique. I have never seen anything like it.”
Veale went through 3k in 13:12.74, opening up a 20-metre lead on Ukraine’s Alina Galchenko with the Russian Nadezhda Leontyeva another 10 metres down and China’s Yanxue Mao, Mexico’s Alejandra Ortega and a tiring Clemente dropping back.
She led by 40 metres with four laps to go, 60 metres three laps out and had a lead of 70 metres at the bell with a ferocious battle for the minor placings raging behind.
Eventually, Mao held on for her second silver in two years in 22:00.15, a new personal best, with Leontyeva taking bronze in another personal best of 22:00.84. Galchenko stumbled across the line in a new personal best 22:12.47.
“It feels really nice to be the world champion,” Veale said. “I felt strong during the whole race but until the last lap I wasn’t sure I could be first. I know the Chinese had a good finish and I didn’t know where they were behind me.
“My family was here to support me, they were louder than the Chinese and Russian fans.”
Marcus Lawler posted a new personal best at 21.63 secs to qualify for this afternoon’s boys 200m semi-finals.
He finished second in his heat behind Andre Azonwanna (Canada), 21.51 secs, to gain automatic qualification for the semi-finals. The Carlow schoolboy is coached by his mother, Patricia Ammond, a former international sprinter.
Another exciting walks prospect, Evan Lynch (Clonmel AC), goes in the boys’ 10k walk this morning while Ruairi Finnegan (Letterkenny AC) competes in the 1,500m final tomorrow.
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