Silver joy for Loughnane

Olive Loughnane has provided Irish athletics with a massive shot in the arm by winning a silver medal in the 20 kilometre walk at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

The Cork-born walker, a member of the Loughrea club, put in a tremendous effort to pull away from China's Hong Liu and secure Ireland's first medal at these Championships since Gillian O'Sullivan won silver in the 20km walk in Paris in 2003.

Loughnane finished in a time of 1 hour, 28 minutes and 58 seconds, building on her fine seventh place finish and personal best (1.27:45) in last year's Olympics in Beijing.

She is only the fourth Irish athlete to win a World outdoor Championships medal, with O'Sullivan, Eamonn Coghlan (gold 5000m, 1983) and Sonia O'Sullivan (silver 1500m, 1993, and gold 5000m, 1995) being the others.

Russia's Olga Kaniskina, the Olympic champion, hit the front before the halfway mark in the German capital, and showed superb form to pull away from the field and win gold in 1.28:09.

In testing 29-degree heat, Loughnane was part of the lead group early on - going through 5km in sixth (23:19) and 10km in fifth (45:30).

By the 15km mark, Kaniskina had stretched her lead to 56 seconds with Loughnane and Liu her chief chasers.

The gap could not be closed on the leader and while both Loughnane and Liu picked up warnings for lifting as they battled it out for silver, the Irish 5km champion, who is noted for her ability to put in negative splits, proved the stronger in the closing stages.

Loughnane covered the final 5km in a superb 21 minutes and 40 seconds, smiling from ear to ear and raising her arms aloft as she crossed the finishing line at the Brandenburg Gate. Liu took bronze in a season's best time of 1.29:10.