Loughnane finishes seventh in 20km walk

Ireland's Olive Loughnane has set a new personal best after finishing seventh in the women's 20km walk at the Beijing Olympics today.

Loughnane finished the race in a time of 1 hour, 27 minutes and 45 seconds after working her way up from 16th position.

She was just one minute and 14 seconds behind the gold-medal winner and she insisted she had given everything in her bid to earn a medal.

“If you had told me last night I’d do 87:45 I would have said I had to make the medals. Of course I’m a bit disappointed to be 30 odd seconds away from the medals but when I saw the pace and how quickly it was going I knew it was too fast.

“I remember thinking around 12-14km: 'God, this is tough'. I did amazingly well and couldn’t have done any more. I was prepared for it to be hot today but I smiled when I saw the weather.”

US athlete Jeremy Wariner, meanwhile, will be looking to break Michael Johnston's record in the men's 400m final today, while the medal winners will also be decided in the men's 110m hurdles and the women's 200m.