Wright secures Olympic qualifying standard

Alex Wright (Leevale) became the second Irish athlete to secure the Olympic qualifying standard with a personal best of 1:20:50 20km racewalk in Coruna in Spain, beating his personal best by 27 seconds. Wright was competing at Gran Premio Cantones De La Coruna on Sunday morning, which was won by Japan’s Toshikazu Yamanishi in a time of 1:17:41. Cian McManamon was the only other Irish competitor in the field, but did not finish. Italy’s Massimo Stano finished in the runners-up position (1:17:45) and another Japanese athlete, Yusuke Suzuki, finished third (1:17:54).

Wright joins Donegal’s Brendan Boyce in securing Olympic standard for Tokyo with 13 months to go.