ATHLETICS:THE FIRST Irish outdoor record of the season has fallen to Robert Heffernan of Cork who made the smoothest possible transition to the 50km walk by posting an impressive three hours, 50 minutes and seven seconds – good enough for third place at the European Walking Challenge in Dudince, Slovakia on Saturday.
It was Heffernan’s debut at the distance, having specialised in the 20km walk, and he improved the record of 3.50.52 set by Jamie Costin at the same event last year.
Also performing well over the weekend was Joanne Cuddihy, who won the 400 metres at the New Zealand track and field championships in Christchurch, clocking 52.84 – bettering her season’s best of 52.95 set in Melbourne earlier this month.
As expected, it was East Africa all the way at yesterday’s World Cross Country championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, where Ireland’s entrants – Linda Byrne and John Travers – were among the vast majority of Europeans who surrendered to the might of Kenya, who won all four races.
Byrne finished 69th in the senior women’s race, a disappointing result given she was hoping to improve on her 65th placing two years ago. Victory went to Kenya’s Emily Chebet in 24:19, who also lead her country to team victory ahead of Ethiopia with the US third.
Travers finished 59th in the junior men’s race in 24:44, some way back on Kenya’s Caleb Mwangangei Ndiku, in 22:07. Kenya placed first in the team race here with a mere 10 points, followed by Ethiopia and Uganda.
Kenya also claimed their first senior men’s individual title since Paul Tergat in 1999, when Joseph Ebuya cruised home in 33 minutes flat – six seconds ahead of Teklemariam Medhim of Eritrea.
Kenya won the junior women’s race with Mercy Cherono.
