Loughnane and Reynolds break personal and season's best times
18:51, 11 Aug 2012
Olive Loughnane and Laura Reynolds have continued the good news for Irish athletes in the walking events today.
In the women's 20km race walk, Loughnane finished in 13th place with a season's best of 1:29:39 while Reynolds secured a personal best time of 1:31:02 as she claimed 20th place.
Russia's Elena Lashmanova won gold in a world record 1:25:02, defeating her compatriot and defending champion Olga Kaniskina.
Earlier, Cork's Rob Heffernan finished just outside the medal spots in fourth place in a fantastic display in the men's 50km race walk.
Kaniskina went off quickly and looked a certain winner as she continued to pull clear, leading her fellow Russian by 43 seconds at the 12km mark.
But the 20-year-old Lashmanova had timed her race to perfection and closed that gap to 36 seconds by the 14km mark, 24 by the 16km point and 17 with 2km to go before reeling her rival in on the last lap.
Kaniskina, the three-time reigning world champion, took silver, seven seconds back, with China's Qieyang Shenjie taking the bronze.