Athletics Ireland – News – Veale Crowned World Youth Champion in 5km Walk

Kate Veale (West Waterford AC) has produced a tremendous performance to win the 5km Walk at World Youth Track and Field Championships in Lille, France today. 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 (22:00.15) and Russia’s Nadezhda Leontyeva was third in 22:00.84. Veale 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 May 21st.

There was further good news for the Irish when Marcus Lawlor (St. Laurence O’Toole AC) finished second in heat 3 of the 200m running 21.63 to gain an automatic qualifying spot in tomorrow’s semi-final. In doing so he also broke his own Irish Youth Record of 21.79.