Olive Loughnane of Loughrea AC placed an impressive eighth in the Women’s 20km Race at the IAAF World Cup of Race Walking in Saransk, Russia, on Sunday.
The former World medallist set off at a conservative pace, but, in her usual race strategy, she moved well through the field to record a season’s best of 1:31:32.
Russian athlete Elena Lashmanova won the race in 1:27:38, surprising many by defeating World and Olympic champion Olga Kaniskina 1:28:33.
Loughnane, who continues her preparations for the London Olympics, has been using a state-of-the-art altitude tent as part of her preparations.
“This is a new departure for me, but it is working well,” said Loughnane. “I am getting the results in training. I’ve had ups and downs, but then you have those any year. You just have to keep calm and perform when it matters -I’ve had a couple of not so good days this year and yet I was still well inside the [Olympic]qualifying standard each time.”
