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

Brendan Boyce sets new PB in the 50k walk in Zurich

The obvious big news story today was the world champion Rob Heffernan having to withdraw from the 50 km race walk in Zurich at the European championships. It really is such a tough event. A full marathon is 42.2kms in length and this is 8kms further...just over 31 miles......and it's race walking as opposed to running. It's hard to appreciate just how fit these guys are.

The winner of the race was Yohann Diniz of France who set a new world record time of 3:32:33. He went through the marathon mark in under 3 hours!

It's also worth noting the achievement of Brendan Boyce who was the other Irish interest in the race. Brendan who is coached by Rob finished in a very credible 16th place in a new personal best time of 3h 51m 34s. That's almost 3 minutes faster than his previous personal best of 3:54:24 set at the World Championships in Moscow in 2013.

Here is a breakdown of Brendan's splits...
10k...23rd...46:25 // 20k...21st...1:32:44 // 30k...20th...2:18:49 // 40k...17th...3:04:21

Just to put those times in perspective, if you ran at his average pace then you would do a half-marathon in 1:37:43 and a full marathon in 3:15:25........except of course Brendan was race walking.

A big improvement for the man from Donegal.

Post race interview...

Top Russian race walker Igor Erokhin gets lifetime ban for doping

This just in! Remember this image from the 2012 London Olympics?

It shows Rob Heffernan finishing 4th in the mens 50 km walk. The Russian who finished just behind him in 5th place was Igor Erokhin.

Back in 2008, Erokhin failed a doping test and served a two year ban.

Today, it was announced on a Russian News website that he has now been banned for life after problems were found with his biological passport. All of his results since the 25th of February 2011 will be cancelled, including his 5th place in the Olympics.