Nathan Deakes (© Getty Images)
All 5 Olympic bound Australian race walkers head up a star studded line-up in the 14th Dublin International Grand Prix of Race Walking in the Phoenix Park on Sunday (27 June), while over 20 athletes will chase times in the 50kms event as the final date for Olympic qualification draws ever closer.
Australians have all eyes on Athens
Led by World Cup bronze medallist Nathan Deakes and World Cup 4th placer Jane Saville, the Australians will be using the event as the last competitive opportunity before Athens before spending the next month in training camps at high altitude in St. Moritz (Deakes) and Font Romeau (Saville & Adams) respectively.
Deakes, who set the Commonwealth record of 1:18:14 at this competition 3 years ago will not have things his own way and will face stern competition from local star Robert Heffernan who recently recorded the second fastest time of his career with a 1:20:55 clocking in La Coruna 4 weeks ago.
Indeed Deakes Australian team-mate Luke Adams, who finished 5th in last year’s World Championships in Paris, will also be looking to make up for a rare DNF due to illness in Sesto San Giovanni last weekend.
National Championships
Doubling up as the Irish 20km national championships, reigning Champion Jamie Costin, who has achieved the Olympic standard for 50km will be hoping to gain his second A standard by improving his season’s best for 20km of 1:23:08 by a mere 8 seconds.
O’Sullivan injury
In the women’s 20km the competition was dealt a severe blow by the late withdrawal due to injury of World silver medallist Gillian O'Sullivan. Although the injury is not thought to be too serious, O'Sullivan has decided to miss both the Krakow 10km and this event in a bid to regain the kind of form which won her World silver in Paris last year.
In her absence however, the way is now left open to Olive Loughnane to win her first Irish 20km title having won silver on 4 previous occasions. Race favourite Jane Saville of Australia, who finished third in this event in 2001 behind Susanna Feitor (POR) and O'Sullivan, will be looking forward to her first major win after making a huge improvement from 11th in Paris last year, to 4th in the World Cup in Naumburg in May.
The Men’s 50km sees a whole host of International entries looking for last minute qualification the most surprising of which are those from 20km specialists Andre Hohne (GER) and Hatem Ghoula (TUN).
Elite Entries
20km Men
Jamie Costin IRL
Robert Heffernan IRL
Colin Griffin IRL
Nathan Deakes Australia
Luke Adams Australia
Frank Bertei Australia
Augusto Cardosa Portugal
Bruno Reis Portugal
Fredy Hernandez Columbia
20km Women
Olive Loughnane IRL
Cheryl Webb Australia
Jane Saville Australia
Nathalie Saville Australia
Jo Hesketh England
Outi Sillanpaa Finland
Maria Gonzalez Columbia
Ildiko Illyes Hungary
Ann Loughnane IRL
Catriona McMahon IRL
Yeliz Ay Turkey
Sara Jane Cattermole Scotland
50km Men
Jeff Cassin IRL
Kazimer Verkin Slovakia
Marek Janek Slovakia
Martin Pupis Slovakia
Peter Tichy Slovakia
Jacob Sorensen Denmark
Steve Partington Isle of Man
Andi Drake England
Fredrik Svensson Sweden
Andreas Gustaffson Sweden
Bengt Bengtsson Sweden
Sean Albert USA
Denis Trautmann Germany
Andre Hohne Germany
Maik Berger Germany
Mike Trautmann Germany
Hattem Ghoula Tunisia
Janos Toth Hungary
Robert Tubak Hungary
Jorge Loreficie Argentina
Dublin Grand Prix Records:
50km Men Mike Trautmann (Germany) 3.51.38 2001
20km Men Nathan Deakes (Australia) 1.18.14 2001
20km Women Susana Feitor (Portugal) 1.28.06 2001
