Boyce best of Irish in China; Healy flies in Waterford

Boyce 17th in China

Brendan Boyce (Finn Valley) was the top Irish performer at the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships in Taicang, China over the weekend with a 17th place finish in 3:53:32.

“Good to get a decent race under my belt with 17th at worlds,” said Boyce afterwards who continued saying “my best global finish to date and 9th European athlete. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in again in 3 months, in Berlin, when I will be 100%.

Boyce started his race in cloudy and windy conditions on the Saturday while on a warm and muggy Sunday morning Cian McManamon (Westport) was 38th in the 20km race in 1:27:17 while Alex Wright (Leevale) did not finish.

Japan won both the men’s 50km and 20km race walks with Hirooki Arai topping the longer distance in 3:44:25 while Koki Ikeda won the shorter in 1:21:13.

Meanwhile in Waterford at the Ton Le Gaoithe sprints meeting, Phil Healy (Bandon) was in superlative form running the fastest Irish women’s 100m times ever recorded.

Healy ran times of 11.24 (+2.5) and 11.16(+3.0) but unfortunately were over the legal wind limit of +2.0.

The Irish team for the European 10,000m Cup to take place in London on the 19th of May is as follows:

Shona Heaslip (An Riocht), Ann Marie McGlynn (Letterkenny AC), Emma Mitchell (Queens University AC), Fionnuala Ross (Armagh AC); Hugh Armstrong (Ballina AC), Sergiu Ciobanu (Clonliffe Harriers), Mick Clohisey (Raheny Shamrock AC); Stephen Scullion (Clonliffe Harriers AC)