Raheny delivers race walking titles for Kilkenny athletes

More than 1oo race walkers flocked to St Anne’s Park in Raheny last week for the International World Tour event, which also doubled up as the Irish National Championships. Among those who took part in the open races were athletes from Kilkenny clubs St Senan’s and St Joseph’s.

The race drew plenty of attention ahead of the World Championships, which will be held in Budapest next summer. With the new qualification system being introduced in recent years, athletes must either gain a qualification time or accumulate points from various world tour events and earn enough to rank in the top 50.

Starting this month, various world tour events will be held for all athletics disciplines. The first of these was in Dublin, where the race walkers had a chance to either do the qualifying time or gain points.

The race combined the World Tour, the Irish National Championships and an open juvenile series of races. It attracted athletes from over 16 countries, from as far away as Costa Rica, Brazil and Mauritius to Continental Europe. There was a double victory for France as Clémence Beretta won the women’s 10km while Aurélien Quinion crossed the line in first place in the men’s 35km race. Local interest lay predominantly in the juvenile races, while race walking stalwart Maggie O’Connor took part in the senior 10km race.

In the boys’ under-12 race Tadgh O’Callaghan (St Senan’s) showed his mastery for this very technical event, when he stormed home to take the gold ahead of Polish athlete Xawery Korzeniowski - the son of the quadruple Olympic gold medallist Robert Korzeniowski, regarded as one of the best ever race-walkers.

O’Callaghan recorded a new best of the 1km race to win by an 18 second margin. O’Callaghan is no stranger to this event, having also taken part last year.

Podium finisher

Senan’s had another podium finisher in the girls’ under-12 race. Although new to race walking Lucy Aylward looked technically adept as she easily navigated the 1km route to finish second. Her time of 5.50 was an excellent result for a newcomer. In the under-10 500m event Emily Doyle (St Joseph’s) finished third in her first big competition.

Lily Doyle (St Joseph’s) had tough competition on her hands in the girls’ under-16 event as she took on several national medal winners from this year’s track and field. A blistering pace of 4.55 was set by Karen Mulvanney-Kelly of North Leitrim AC for the first 1km. Hot on her heels was Savanagh O’Callaghan (Tuam AC) with Lily Ryan some eight seconds adrift.

Good opener

Ryan settled into the race and maintained her third place status for the remainder of the race, producing a fast 5.43 for her final 1km. It was a good season opener for Doyle, who narrowly missed out on a track medal this year in the schools All-Ireland. She may just be one to watch next summer.

Keelin Duggan went into Sunday’s race with just one aim – to complete the 5km distance. Stepping up from 3km to 5km was a tough call for the St Senan’s athlete, who just turned 16 a few days ago. Finishing under 30 minutes, she can be very pleased with her effort and has laid down some impressive benchmarks for the 2023 season.

Maggie O’Connor (St Joseph’s) was the only Kilkenny competitor in the senior event. Well known on the race walking circuit, Maggie was part of the European Masters team that won silver and bronze medals in the team event.

The first female masters athlete home, she can be well pleased with her 57 minute season opener. Donegal’s Sinead O’Connell set the pace for the first 2km with O’Connor 13 seconds behind. However, O’Connell paid the price for her early pace, with O’Connor passing her during the third kilometre. It was forward from there, with reasonably consistent 1km splits, to finish in 57.45.