Athletics: IAAF World Track and Field Championships
REIGNING world 50km walk champion Robert Heffernan will lead an Irish team of 11 athletes at the IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Beijing from August 22-30.
Three Ulster athletes – Kerry O’Flaherty, Mark English and Brendan Boyce – will join the Cork man on the team, while hopes are also high that there could still be a place for Ben Reynolds under the IAAF quota scheme. Ciara Mageean has indicated she will not take a quota spot even if it is offered to her, preferring to regain full fitness after enduring several years blighted by injury.
Heffernan won gold in Moscow two years ago to become only the fifth Irish athlete to take a World Championship medal. The 37-year-old has just completed a spell of altitude training in Morocco, but did not have the best send-off after being disqualified last Sunday at the Irish Championships.
Heffernan’s preparations have also been interrupted by some niggling injuries earlier in the year, but he is in a positive frame of mind: “I want to win a medal, I’ve always wanted to win a medal, if I can control what I can do and deliver a performance,” he said.
Heffernan will be joined in the 50km walk by Letterkenny’s Brendan Boyce, who took the silver medal in the national 10,000m event last Sunday.
English goes into Beijing showing improved form after a disappointing eighth place in the European U23 Championships. The 22-year-old UCD student bounced back to finish fourth in the London Anniversary Games in a season’s best, and Olympic qualifying time, of 1:45.49.
English didn’t make it through the rounds at the World Championships in Moscow in 2013, but has medalled at his last two senior championships – bronze at the European outdoors in Zurich and silver at the European indoors this March.
“I can’t forget what happened last time,” said English of the World Championships in 2013
“Moscow was tactics, not really preparation. I was in great shape. I’m going to go out there and give it a blast. I think I’m back to my old best, there’s a carbon copy of where I was last year, maybe a little better and the lack of expectation plays into my hands because you saw how I did in Zurich. You need that bit of luck to go your way.”
Newcastle athlete O’Flaherty will make her debut at world level after running the qualifying time for the 3000m in Letterkenny last month.
The Irish team flies to Hong Kong this morning for a 13-day holding camp before heading into the athletes’ village in Beijing. The quota places will be announced by the IAAF on Wednesday morning.
IRISH TEAM
400m hurdles: Thomas Barr (Ferrybank)
800m: Mark English (UCD)
3,000m steeplechase: Kerry O’Flaherty (Newcastle), Michelle Finn (Leevale)
Pole Vault: Tori Pena (Finn Valley)
20km/50km Walk: Alex Wright (Leevale)
50km Walk: Robert Heffernan (Togher), Brendan Boyce (Letterkenny)
4x400m relay: Thomas Barr, Mark English, Brian Gregan, Brian Murphy, Richard Morrissey, Timmy Crowe
