Rob Heffernan & Brendan Boyce qualify for the 2015 World Championships in China

A number of Irish international race walkers were in action today (15th March 2015) at the IAAF Race Walking Challenge Permit Meeting in Dudince in the Slovak Republic.

Brendan Boyce & Rob Heffernan

In the mens 50km walk, Rob Heffernan and Brendan Boyce finished in 4th and 5th place respectively. Their times were also inside the 3h 55m qualifying time for the World Championships in Beijing in August of this year.

 This was also a new personal best time for Brendan Boyce, beating his previous best of 3:51:34 which he set at the European Championships in Zurich last year. It was also one of his best finishing positions, just 11 seconds behind the current World Champion Rob Heffernan whereas in the past, he would have been well behind Rob.

In the 20km walk, Alex Wright finished in  5th place in 1:27:56, outside the qualifying standard of 1:23:30 for the World Championships.