Ireland's Kate Veale has won a gold medal in the women’s 5,000m walk at the World Youth Championships in Lille, France.
(Listen to gold medal winner Kate Veale talk to Con Murphy on Sport at 7 Extra.)
Veale who is coached by Olympian Jamie Costin, stayed with the pack in the opening 2km then moved to the front and pushed the pace, opening up a significant gap on her competitors which they could not close.
Veale won in a time of 21:45.59 almost 30 seconds ahead of Yanxue Mao of China and Russia’s Nadezhda Leontyeva, who was was third.
The Waterford athlete also smashed her Irish junior record of 22:36.97 which she set when finishing fourth at last year’s World Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.
The Waterford athlete showed her championships form earlier this year when wining a bronze medal in the junior women’s 10km at the European Cup of Race Walking in the Algarve on 21 May.
There was further good news for the Irish when Marcus Lawlor (St. Laurence O'Toole AC) finished second in heat three of the 200m, running 21.63 to gain an automatic qualifying spot in Saturday's semi-final. In doing so he also broke his own Irish Youth Record of 21.79.
