The leading Irish racewalkers are set to compete at the 123.ie National Race Walk Championships in St Anne’s Park on Sunday (December 18th).
Athletes, including Olympians Brendan Boyce and David Kenny will take to the 2,000m looped course from 11am.
Boyce (Finn Valley) is back in domestic action following yet another major top 10 at the European Championships, a performance which came off the back of a 25th-place finish at the World Championships in Oregon a few weeks previous.
Kenny too competed at the World Championships in Oregon over the summer and was unlucky to miss out on Munich through injury.
The Tokyo Olympian put in one of the performances of the season back in April, taking an incredible three minutes off his previous best 20k time. The Farranfore Maine Valley athlete clocked 1:19:44 that day, which ranks second only to Robert Heffernan’s 1:19:22.
Multi-national champion, Kate Veale (West Waterford), will be taking on the clock on Sunday when she takes to the start line. Veale has been focusing on the 10,000m distance in recent months and will look to use that speed to better last year’s winning 35k time of 03:07:03. The Waterford athlete will have a strong field of international athletes to ensure a strong pace throughout.
A feature of all races will be the inclusion of a contingent of overseas athletes who will be competing as guests and should ensure competitive fields throughout the morning and afternoon. A name familiar to many Irish fans at this stage will be the World bronze medallist Perseus Karlstrom (Sweden).
Juvenile, Junior and Master athletes will also race at the venue while the Senior races are taking place.
It all promises to be a great day of Race Walking. Many thanks to Raheny Shamrock Athletic Club for hosting this event.
Entry List HERE
Results will follow post event.