Alex Wright of Leevale AC wins 50km race walk in Germany

At a 50km race walk in Germany on Saturday (11th of Oct 2014), Alex Wright of Leevale AC won in a time of 3h 51m 28s which equates to 7:27 per mile pace.

32. Gleinaer Schleife am 11.10.2014...Deutsche Gehermeisterschaften (DM)...Ergebnisliste mit Rahmenwettbewerben   
50 km Gehen Männer
1. Wright, Alex    1990    Leevale Athletic Club (Irland)    3:51:28 h   
2. Brembach, Nils    1993    SC Potsdam    3:54:47 h   
3. Janker, Andreas    1983    LG Röthenbach/Pegnitz    4:28:47 h   
4. Maier, Joachim    1970    SV Breitenbrunn    5:26:18 h
   
Alex Wright is very much one of the up and coming stars in Irish athletics. At the end of 2013, he declared for Ireland having competed for Great Britain previously. At the Cork City Sports last July, he set a new Irish record in the 3000m walk. Now in this 50km walk...which by the way is around 31 miles, his winning time puts him in third spot on the Irish all time list.

1 3:37:54    Robert Heffernan    1978 London    11 Aug 2012
2 3:50:51 Jamie Costin 1977 Dudince    28 Mar 2009
3 3:51:28 Alex Wright 1990 Germany 11 Oct 2014
4 3:51:32     Colin Griffin 1982 Dudince 24 Mar 2007
5 3:51:34     Brendan Boyce 1986  Zürich 15 Aug 2014

It's interesting to see that for a small country, Ireland out competes Britain in race walking. According to the UK athletics website, the current British record for the 50km walk is 3:51:37 and that was set way back in 1990. If Alex was still competing for Britain then it would have new UK record.

Alex is part of the race walking group in Cork that is being coached by the current world 50km champion Rob Heffernan.

Photo : Gearóid Ó Laoi