Disappointment for 'sluggish' Reynolds in Moscow

Laura Reynolds expressed extreme disappointment in finishing 31st in the women’s 20k walk at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow.

The Mohill athlete finished 20th at last year’s London Olympics, but reported feeling sluggish in the first-half of the race, where she went through halfway lying 37th in around 45 minutes.

Reynolds picked up the pace after the 10k mark, taking out a number of athletes ahead of her as she sought a place in the top 20.

However, as she entered the stadium, fatigue had begun to play its part again and the Leitrim walker came home in 31st place in a time of 1 hour 33 minutes 39 seconds – two-and-a-half minutes outside her personal best.

“Very disappointed with that," she said. “31st place says it all, from 20th last year in the Olympics.

“I don’t know what happened, I just didn’t feel good for the whole race. I was very sluggish for the first 10k.

“I was able to pick it up from 10k for a few kilometres but then fell back again. It just wasn’t a good race.

“I was very happy with how training was going, and I was very excited coming into this. I felt in great form and this doesn’t reflect that at all.”

A dramatic finish saw three Russian athletes enter the stadium first, but third-placed Vera Sokolova was disqualified as she was about to hit the final lap.

Elena Lashmanova then stopped as she crossed the finish line for the first time, not realising she still had a lap remaining.

Corrected by an official, Lashmanova set off again but had lost her tempo, seemingly opening the door for Anisya Kirdyapkina to pounce – but the latter could not overhaul the former, and Lashmanova took the honours by three seconds.

Silver went to Kirdyapkina – wife of Olympic 50k champion Sergey Kirdyapkin, who has withdrawn from tomorrow’s staging of that event – with Liu Hong of China third, just as she was at the 2009 Berlin World Championships behind Olive Loughnane.

Elsewhere in the morning session, Mo Farah and training partner Galen Rupp comfortably qualified for the men’s 5000m final in a semi-final won by Ethiopia’s Muktar Edris.