Lane smashes Tokyo World Championships standard

What a weekend for Oisin Lane as he proves that he is world class with a fifth place finish (same time as fourth place) in the Spanish National 35km Race Walking Championships in Marin (Spain) last Sunday morning.

Spain is currently the best nation for racewalking in Europe and also have the toughest judges to help ensure they maintain those elite standards. With a World Championships qualifying standard of 2 hours 36 minutes 30 seconds needed, Oisin absolutely smashed this by over four and a half minutes with a final time of 2 hours 31 minutes 53 seconds.

In cold, wet and sometimes windy conditions more akin to being at home in Ireland, Oisin lined up with a strong field of 28. These tough conditions definitely took their toll on the field as in the end only 10 made it to the finish line. Oisin took complete control of his own pace, walking a strong but still conservative opening 10k in 43:55. He then gradually worked his way through the field walking the second 10k in 43:42. Feeling fresh and strong Oisin then strode out and covered the next 10k in 42:50. At this stage, many were suffering and dropping out but Oisin pushed on strongly to cover the last 5k in 21:26 and finished with a huge new personal best by over five and a half minutes and a Top 20 World ranking for the “World Athletics Road to Tokyo”, which is the official qualification system for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September. While there are still five months of competitions before the final qualification date, in fact the majority of the long distance endurance events like the 35k racewalk will be held in the next 2 months, everything is looking very good for Oisin. For a thrilled Oisin the plan now is to develop his speed over the shorter 20k races at some of the big meets coming up in Europe over the next few months, while at the same time keeping an eye to the training needed to perform at a World Athletics Championship [ML].