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| Ireland's Olive Loughnane will be up against a number of top international race walkers on her home turf at the Dublin Grand Prix on Sunday. |
Ireland’s 2009 World Championship silver medallist Olive Loughnane will be looking for a confidence boosting victory at the 18th Dublin International Grand Prix of Race Walking, a European Athletics Race Walking Permit Meeting, on Sunday.
The 35-year-old from Galway has been focussed on the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, in September and has raced sparingly so far this year, aware that the biggest event of the year takes place late in the season.
She will face an impressive field in the Irish capital’s Phoenix Park including China’s Liu Hong, who won the bronze medal behind Loughnane in Berlin, and her team mate He Qin who is the 2010 World Junior Championships junior silver medallist.
Australia’s Commonwealth Games champion Claire Tallent will also be in Dublin.
Ireland’s Laura Reynolds will do 10km of the event as part of her preparations for the European Athletics U23 Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, next month.
Robert Heffernan, Ireland’s most prominent walker of recent years, who was fourth in both the European Athletics Championships 20km and 50km walks last summer, will be looking for a victory on home soil in the 20km but he too will be faced with a field of world class proportions with athletes from 22 countries.
The 50km race will have the 2008 Olympic Games gold and silver medalists, Italy’s Alex Schwazer and Australia’s Jarred Tallent on the start line.
The meeting is a points scoring competition for the IAAF Race Walking Challenge and also incorporates the Woodie’s DIY National 20km Walk Championship, an international match between Ireland, England, Switzerland, Holland and Denmark and also the Paul Nihill Shield match between Ireland and England in the younger age groups.
The latter match will see Kate Veale take part in the under 18 3km race ahead of her bid for an IAAF World Youth Championships medal in Lille, France, next month.