Loughnane to lead Irish in Korea

OLIVE LOUGHNANE (Loughrea AC), silver medallist in the women’s 20k walk in Berlin two years ago, will lead the Irish team into the World Championships in Daegu, Korea, at the end of the month.

The Cork-based race walker was an absentee from the Woodies DIY national senior championships at Morton Stadium on Sunday after electing to remain on at her training camp in Spain.

Nevertheless, she will travel to Korea as Ireland’s leading medal hope and Chair of High Performance, Ray Flynn, predicted that she will be difficult to beat.

“She is in tremendous form, her technique is superb and she will once again be the dark horse,” said Flynn, who is a race walking coach himself.

Robert Heffernan (Togher AC) made an early return to competition when he broke from training to defend his 10,000m title on Sunday and he also confirmed his intention to double up for the Worlds in Korea.

Heffernan, who was fourth in both the 20k and 50k walks at the European championships in Barcelona last year, will be joined by Colin Griffin (Ballinamore AC) in the 50k where both will be chasing qualification standards for London. Heffernan already has his “A” standard at 20k.

Heffernan’s best performance at this level was sixth in Osaka in 2007 and he went on to finish eighth in the Beijing Olympics the following year.

Jessie Barr’s addition to the women’s 4 x 400m relay squad is hardly surprising after her performances over the 400m hurdles in recent weeks. She set a new national record at the European under-23 championships in Ostrava where she made the final and she was still at her brilliant best at the championships on Sunday when she claimed the title in 57.38 secs despite almost falling after hitting the second hurdle.

The Ferrybank club athlete is coached by the Drew-Hayley Harrison team at UL and yesterday Drew Harrison admitted it was a nice way to end what has been a great season for her.

“It was never in the plan but it is a nice bonus for her to be there,” he said. “She had just one on the flat this year — Cork City Sports — where she did 54.96. That’s the first time she had run it for ages.

“She is in fantastic shape. She did very well to rescue the race last weekend and still run 57.38. I was standing on the back straight and she did well to recover. I am sure she will have a good run in Korea.”