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.

Behind them, Jane Saville, who was disqualified on her way into the stadium at the Sydney Olympics, set a new Commonwealth record at 1:27:44 leading three Australians to Olympic qualifying standards including her sister, Natalie.

Gillian O'Sullivan returned the third fastest time of her career at 1:28:01 for eighth place ­ almost two minutes faster than Mexico in March and that gave her some consolation for the contribution she made to the most competitive world cup race since the women's 20k was introduced to the programme.

From the gun O'Sullivan was in the front line and when the Russian split the field, taking three others with her, the Irish woman took up the chase helped by Jane Saville.

Nikolayeva was 15 seconds clear of Honjuan Song of China who was followed by the German, Melanie Seeger and the Grand Prix leader, Elisa Rigauda of Italy at half way but still O'Sullivan, despite being on one yellow card, pursued them relentlessly.

"It was important not to panic," she said. "I looked at my splits and saw they were in 87 minute pace and I knew they would not sustain it.

"I was lucky to get a group with Jane (Saville) involved and we worked well. I picked up a second card so, obviously, I had to be more cautious."

But they reeled in all but the Russian and, suddenly O'Sullivan was in the silver medal position. However, before she had a chance to recover from the effort, two new Chinese, attacked and the group split with O'Sullivan taking a breather at the back and, at that point, she was given no opportunity to respond.

"I know people will probably look at this and say I was only eighth and I won a silver medal last year but this race is more difficult. The field is almost twice as big as the Olympics or world championships and it is difficult to get through early on," she said.

"This was tactical and very competitive and you learn a lot from those races. It's all about racing. The winner was just 37 seconds ahead of me and that's nothing over 20k.

"I know I still have a lot to do. I will have a couple of more races - two at the most ­ before the Olympics with a short race at the Nissan Games in Sligo at the end of the month."

Coach Michael Lane singled this race out as her second best ever performance outside of the European championships in Munich when she was fourth. "She has improved two minutes since Mexico in March and there is much more there. She has the capacity to walk a lot faster than this, given the right race and the right conditions," he said.

Ireland's other two walkers with Olympic qualification competed in yesterday's men's 20k race and Robert Heffernan, recovering from chest infection, finished 27th in 1:22:58, after mixing it with the leaders right up to half way.

"I went through the first 10k in 40 minutes and that is my fastest first half in a couple of years so it gives me something to work on," he said.

Jamie Costin trained with the Poles in New Mexico and then at their training camp in Poland and reaped the rewards yesterday when he finished 30th in 1:23:08, just eight seconds off the Olympic standard and he already holds the standard for 50k.

Jeff Cassin will take his quest for the 50k standard to the Phoenix Park in June after dropping out of Saturday's 50k race at 33k.

And Caitriona McMahon from Askeaton finished 37th in the junior women's 10 in 54:12 on Saturday.

Ireland's men's team finished 14th yesterday with Colin Griffin completing the scoring in 70th place in 1:29:12. David Kidd from Carlow was 89th in 1:36:10.