Ireland’s walkers were in savage form at the European Cup Race Walking at Royal Lemington Spa today. Both Robert Heffernan and Jamie Costin set new PB’s in their events, with the former’s time bettering his own national record, and Costin’s time qualifying him for the World championships and the Beijing Olympics. Both athletes have suffered major injury problems over the past couple of years but have battled back in tremendous style to reach the heights achieved today. Robert Heffernan had one of his best races ever to finish fifth in the 20k event. The winner was Yohan Diniz from France in 1:18:58, with Heffernan clocking 1:20:15, just six seconds off third placed Russian Igor Yerokhin. 1 Yohan Diniz FRA 19:53 39:35 59:11 1:18:58 (5k Splits) 2 Ivano Brugnetti ITA 0:19:57 0:39:35 0:59:14 1:19:36 3 Igor Yerokhin RUS 0:20:07 0:40:00 1:00:03 1:20:09 4 Ivan Trotski BLR 0:19:58 0:40:05 1:00:04 1:20:13 5 Robert Heffernan IRL 0:19:57 0:39:49 1:00:00 1:20:15 28 429 Colin Griffin IRL 0:20:49 0:41:43 1:03:07 1:25:14 46 428 Jeffrey Cassin IRL 0:22:13 0:44:22 1:06:42 1:29:06 9 IRL (5, 28, 46) 79pts 
Few will forget the horrific car crash that ended Jamie Costin’s Greece Olympics, with the dreadful thought that he would never walk again too hard to believe. Not only has he overcome those life threatening injuries but he has now battled all the way back to the high very highest level. 15 Jamie Costin IRL 0:24:14 0:48:09 1:11:27 1:34:47 1:58:01 2:21:05 2:44:17 3:07:22 3:30:11 3:53:30 (k Splits) MENS 50Km 
25 326 Olive Loughnane IRL 0:23:15 0:46:33 1:10:28 1:34:28 WOMENS 20Km 28 120 Paul Fitzpatrick IRL 22:30 45:40 JUNIOR MENS 10Km 33 223 Laura Reynolds IRL 25:25 52:53 JUNIOR WOMENS 10Km
3,000m: 14 NOLAN James IRL 27 ENE 1977 5 8:17.95 1,500m: 13 BYRNE Linda IRL 13 MAY 1986 5 4:31.12 Spanish town of Herrera 7 FAGAN MARTIN M23 71 REEB Providence RI Ireland 28:54 Healthy Kidney 10K Central Park, New York
Few will forget the horrific car crash that ended Jamie Costin’s Greece Olympics, with the dreadful thought that he would never walk again too hard to believe. Not only has he overcome those life threatening injuries but he has now battled all the way back to the high very highest level. 15 Jamie Costin IRL 0:24:14 0:48:09 1:11:27 1:34:47 1:58:01 2:21:05 2:44:17 3:07:22 3:30:11 3:53:30 (k Splits) MENS 50Km 25 326 Olive Loughnane IRL 0:23:15 0:46:33 1:10:28 1:34:28 WOMENS 20Km 28 120 Paul Fitzpatrick IRL 22:30 45:40 JUNIOR MENS 10Km 33 223 Laura Reynolds IRL 25:25 52:53 JUNIOR WOMENS 10Km 3,000m: 14 NOLAN James IRL 27 ENE 1977 5 8:17.95 1,500m: 13 BYRNE Linda IRL 13 MAY 1986 5 4:31.12 Spanish town of Herrera 7 FAGAN MARTIN M23 71 REEB Providence RI Ireland 28:54 Healthy Kidney 10K Central Park, New York
