No walk in the park as Loughnane disappoints

IRELAND’S hopes of a medal at the world championships in Daegu suffered a major blow yesterday when Olive Loughnane failed to replicate her silver medal performance in Berlin two years ago in the women’s 20k walk.

The Cork-based Loughrea woman finished 16th in 1:34:02 — she walked 1:28:58 for the silver medal in Berlin and, a year earlier, she finished seventh at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 1:27.45.

“Obviously she is very disappointed,” the Irish team manager, Patsy McGonagle, said. “She was the only one of the top four from Berlin who was missing from the front of the race and we are all at something of a loss as to what the reason for that was.