Hard work yields no reward for eighth-placed O’Sullivan

MEDALS are not awarded for effort in the tough world of race walking but if they were then Gillian O’Sullivan would surely have strode away with gold after yesterday’s World Cup event in Naumburg.

Instead Ireland's world championship silver medallist had to settle for eighth place as the gold medal went to the most successful woman walker of all time, former Olympic champion, Yelena Nikolayeva, winning this title for the first time.

Nikolayeva set a new championship record at 1:27:24, as the Chinese junior champion, Jing Jiang, took the silver medal in 1:27:34 and the Sydney Olympic bronze medallist, Maria Vasco of Spain, sneaked another bronze in 1:27:36, a new national record.