Two Olympic qualifiers in Dudince
Robert Heffernan was pleased with his Olympic qualifying performance over 20km at the IAAF Walking Challenge in Dudince, Slovakia (March 19th).
Heffernan (Togher) walked 1:22:42 and said afterwards: "a solid season opener for me. The Olympic qualifying time gives me options. It was a good training day."
Brendan Boyce (Letterkenny) was also reasonably pleased with his time of 1:26:12: "Happy enough as it’s my first outdoor race of what will be a long season. I will step up from this at World Cup."
Cian McMenamon (Westport) rounded out the 20km performers with a PB of 1:27:31: "Delighted with this as it's a 5 second pb. I have had a tough 2 year's with injury."
Earlier in the day Alex Wright (Leevale) had an excellent 6th place finish over 50km to ensure Olympic qualification. His time of 3 hours 48 minutes 32 seconds was a 3 minute personal best and way inside the Rio qualifying time.
Alex said: "I'm so happy to have done this early in the year. It was really tough over the last 5k but I dug deep and I will now prepare for the world cup in Rome in May where I will race 20k."
