The heat and humidity on the Daegu streets took its toll on Olive Loughnane in the early hours of this morning as the Galway athlete could only manage 16th place in the 20km walk at the World Championships.
A silver medalist in Berlin two years ago, Loughnane was some way off the podium today as the conditions made for a grueling challenge. The Loughrea athlete was dropped from the leading pack when eventual winner Olga Kaniskina upped the pace early in the race.
Although she managed to work her way back to the leading pack, subsequent lifts in pace saw her move further down the field to 23rd place at halfway point, over 23 seconds adrift from the leader. She crossed the line in 18th position four minutes adrift from Kaniskina, who successfully retained her title in a time of 1:29:42.
Kaniskina grimaced her way through downtown Daegu to win the title for a record third time. China's Liu Hong took the silver medal ahead of another Russian, Anisya Kirdyapkina, in third.
Kaniskina, who eclipsed compatriot Olimpiada Ivanova's mark with her third title, crossed the eight seconds ahead of Liu. World record holder Vera Sokolova had looked strong at the head of the field but at the hour mark started to suffer and dropped back to finish in 12th place.
With her tortured face slowly relaxing into relief, Kaniskina thrust her arms into the air to celebrate a third consecutive title as her weary legs dragged her over the line.
The walk was the only action on day five of the championships.
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