OLIVE LOUGHNANE BAGGED a silver medal in the 20km walk two years ago at the Athletics World Championships in Berlin, but was forced to settle for a more modest top-twenty finish in Daegu this morning.
Forced to contend with soaring temperatures and humidity levels in the region of 90%, the Galway woman struggled to match the pace of Russian trio Olga Kaniskina, Vera Sokolova and Anisya Kirdyapkina, who began to impose their will on the field as the race neared the 25-minute mark.
Losing touch with the leading pack at that point, Loughnane drifted down the field before rallying to cross the line in 18th place, with a time of 1:34:02. Subsequent disqualifications saw her finishing position improve to 16th.
The race winner, Olga Kaniskina, retained her World Championship title with an eighteen-second victory over China’s Hong Liu.