Race Walking National Squad Making Strong Progress
Race Walking National Squad making strong progress
In recent times Irish race walking has featured prominently in the news with Olive Loughnane being upgraded to World champion and Rob Heffernan being awarded third place in the London Olympic Games.
The next generation has also been making waves with a series of notable performances in international events. A competitive group travelled to the European Grand Prix of Race Walking in Podebrady, Czech Republic on April 9th. There were a number of exceptional results as the young athletes quickly adjusted to the demands of competing at this high level.
The headline performances were in the youth competition by Niamh O’Connor (Celbridge) 24:34, Orla O’Connor (Waterford) 24:44 and Gearoid McMahon (Shannon) 48:18 who all secured qualifying standards for the European Youth Championships later this year. The quality of these performances was underlined by the fact that none of these athletes received any cautions from the judges.
The junior 10K races also threw up fast times and numerous PBs. Sinead O’Connor (Celbridge) 51:59, Rachel Glennon (Mullingar) 56:15, Aaron Egan (Clonmel) 47:37, Joe Mooney (Adamstown) 47:53 and Anthony Tobin (Clonmel) 48:21.
The team was led by Michael Lane, the national race walking co-ordinator. Michael finalised preparation for the trip at the national Squad session on 2nd April. This session was held in conjunction with the Dublin & Leinster Regional Squad session in Morton Stadium. There were over 30 young athletes in attendance and they were assisted by 6 coaches. An endurance session took place on the day with a strong emphasis on technical proficiency. This was followed by a planning session and discussion with Olympians Jimmy McDonald and Laura Reynolds. This served to inform and motivate the young athletes in advance of the upcoming racing season.
Many of these athletes will now turn their attention to the upcoming schools championships and the international competitions later in the summer. The next generation of race walkers are already in the pipeline.