European U23 silver medallist David Kenny (Farranfore Maine Valley AC) with lead out Team Ireland in Sapporo on Thursday morning.

Kenny goes in the 20k Walk medal decider from 8.30am and the Robert Heffernan trained athlete, who became Ireland’s first ever race walk medalist at the U23 championships last month, will be looking to continue with his impressive form as he targets bettering his PB of 1:23:06.

Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea) goes in the first of the two 1500m semi-finals at 12.00pm having secured his place in the line-up with a perfectly judged performance in the heats on Tuesday.

With the first 5 in each semi-final (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advancing to the Final, Coscoran will likely need to better his 3:35.66 PB in a race that includes the number 1 and 3 ranked athletes in the world.

Coscoran has already shown his big race nous and will be bang there at the bell if this turns into a tactical affair.

The men’s 50k Walk takes place at 9.30pm on Thursday evening where the duo of Alex Wright (Leevale) and Brendan Boyce (Finn Valley) make their Tokyo debuts.

Wright, who booked his place early for Tokyo with his 1:20:50 PB in Spain in 2019 will be looking to better his 46th place finish on his Olympic debut in Rio in 2016 (1:25:25).

Brendan Boyce will be another looking to build on previous Olympic outings. Boyce finished 26th in London 2012 and 19th in Rio 2016 before going on to continue the progress by producing a 6th place finish at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019.

The Robert Heffernan trained athlete has shown that sweltering race conditions are no barrier to his performance and the Finn Valley AC athlete will look to be up amongst the leading contenders as the race enters the final stages.

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