New Irish record for Robert Heffernan - PB for Olive Loughnane Irish race walkers were well represented at the IAAF Race Walking Cup in Russia this weekend. While every athlete gave of their best the weekend belonged to Robert Heffernan who slashed a whopping 53 seconds off his own Irish record set just about one year ago. He was well placed in ninth at 5k which he covered in 20:16. At 10k he moved up a place to eight in a time of 39:53, and moved up to seventh at the 15k mark in a time of 59:30. He eventually finished ninth in 1:19:22 to become the first Irishman to break the magic 80 minute barrier. And Olive Loughnane followed up with her best performance ever when when finished a superb sixth in the women's 20k race. She was 8th at 5k in 22:21; 10th at 10k in 44:38 and 8th at 15k in 66.56 before moving up to sixth at the finish in 1:29:17, bettering the 1:30:29 she set on the same venue back in 2003. Incidentally, there were 20,000 spectators at the event. IAAF World Race Walking Cup 50k 25 Colin Griffin IRL 3:58:26 (SB) 10k 41 Paul Fitzpatrick IRL 46:11 (SB) 10k 35 Laura Reynolds IRL 51:36 (PB) 46 Donna Carolan IRL 54:05 (PB) 20k 9 Robert Heffernan IRL 1:19:22 (NR) 59 Jamie Costin IRL 1:25:59 (SB) 20k 6 76 Olive Loughnane IRL 76 1:29:17 (PB)