Fabulous 14th finish for Fionnuala Britton at World Cross Country Championships in Kenya

26 Mar 2007

Fabulous 14th finish for Fionnuala Britton at World Cross Country in Kenya

Rob Heffernan achieves 20km walk World and Olympic Qualifying standard

Colin Griffin impresses in Slovakia

From www.athleticsireland.ie

Fionnuala Britton from Sli Chulainn and DCU brought a marvellous cross country season to an end with a brilliant 14th place finish in the World Cross Country Championships.

The championships were held on the shores of the Indian Ocean in Monbasa where a huge attendance created an electric atmosphere.

Fionnuala got off to a great start and was 24th after a lap with a time of 6:41. After the second lap she was up to 20th in 13:58, and that improvement continued to 18th after the third lap.

A brilliant final lap brought her up to 14th in 28:45. What a way to finish her season!
Congratulations to Fionnuala and all her support team for getting everything so right.

1 483 Kiplagat Lornah NED 26:23
2 403 Dibaba Tirunesh ETH 26:47 0:24
3 407 Melkamu Meselech ETH 26:48 0:25
4 400 Burika Gelete ETH 26:55 0:32
5 452 Kiplagat Florence Jebet KEN 27:26 1:03
6 448 Chepchumba Pamela KEN 27:34 1:11
7 457 Ngetich Priscah Jepleting KEN 27:39 1:16
8 450 Cheruiyot Vivian KEN 28:10 1:47
9 390 Sultan Simret ERI 28:16 1:53
10 412 Ayalew Wude ETH 28:18 1:55
11 469 El Kamch Zhor MAR 28:20 1:57
12 492 Augusto Jessica POR 28:21 1:58
13 451 Domongole Fridah Chepkemoi KEN 28:27 2:04
14 429 Britton Fionnuala IRL 28:45 2:22
15 417 Dean Hattie GBR 28:48 2:25
16 426 Yelling Hayley GBR 28:53 2:30
17 463 Alaoui Selsouli Mariem MAR 28:53 2:30
18 360 Thompson Anna AUS 28:59 2:36
19 405 Jelela Koren ETH 29:10 2:47
20 395 Moratَ Rosa ESP 29:13 2:50

Meanwhile, in China, Robert Heffernan from Togher achieved the World and Olympic qualifying standard, finishing the 20k race in 81:50

IAAF Race Walking Challenge, Shenzen, China
Men, 20km Walk

1 Francisco Fernلndez (ESP) - 1.18.51
2 Li Gaobo (CHN) - 1.19.03
3 Eder Sلnchez (MEX) - 1.20.08
4 Miao Yanxi (CHN) - 1.20.16
5 Luke Adams (AUS) - 1.20.30
6 Jefferson Perez (ECU) - 1.21.14
7 Jared Tallent (AUS) - 1.21.25
8 Wei Yang (CHN) - 1.21.26
9 Ceng Cruaqiang (CHN) - 1.21.36
10 Kim Jyun-Sup (KOR) - 1.21.37
11 Robert Heffernan (IRL)- 1.21.52
12 Ilya Markov (RUS) - 1.21.55
26 Ivano Brugnetti (ITA) - 1.24.26

And there was more success for our race walkers in the Slovakian town of Dudince where Colin Griffin from Ballinamore had a big win in the 50k event. His winning time of 3:51:30 is well inside the qualifying standard for both World Championships and Olympics.

1 GRIFFIN Colin 82 1 03:51:32 0:00:00 50M IRL
09:21 09:32 09:17 09:24 09:17 09:17 09:20 09:12 09:16 09:14 09:20 09:15 09:12 09:19 09:10
2 BءTOVSKف Miloڑ 79 2 03:54:10 0:02:38 50M VٹC Dukla B.Bystrica SVK
09:23 09:31 09:16 09:24 09:18 09:17 09:19 09:13 09:16 09:14 09:21 09:15 09:12 09:19 09:23
3 ٹKARNULIS Donatas 77 3 03:54:23 0:02:51 50M LTU
09:23 09:33 09:31 09:32 09:28 09:27 09:25 09:28 09:29 09:29 09:25 09:26 09:25 09:27 09:24
4 ERICKSON Chris 81 4 04:04:10 0:12:38 50M AUS
09:22 09:32 09:17 09:23 09:17 09:17 09:19 09:13 09:14 09:15 09:20 09:16 09:13 09:19 09:39
5 MAJDءN Duڑan 87 5 04:07:43 0:16:11 50M VٹC Dukla B.Bystrica SVK