Donegal’s Brendan Boyce finished 10th in the 50k Race Walk at the Olympics, in a time of 3:53:40, less than three minutes outside the medals.
His Team Ireland teammate Alex Wright also impressed in 29th, his highest finish ever at a global championship, in a Season’s Best time of 4:06:20.
Highland’s Athletic’s correspondent Patsy McGonagle says to finish tenth in such testing conditions was a major achievement.
Boyce went with the lead pack from the off, holding that position in a group of 22 men through to the halfway mark. Wright spent most of the first half of the race in the second and third packs, positioned in the thirties and walking in relative isolation for long stretches.
An early morning start of 5:30am, was intended to dampen the extreme conditions, but the athletes still faced temperatures in the thirties, and intense humidity for their four-hour effort.
As the race entered its final hour, both Irishmen began to pick up places, with Boyce up to 11th with 10km to go, and Wright in 36th. Working most of the final stages of the race in isolation, both finished very strongly to cement their positions in the top 10, and top 30.
Boyce was happy that his pre-race tactics paid off saying: “The race tactics were good, it was kind of the way I planned – to go out steady and push through the race.”
After finishing 6th at the 2019 World Championships in the event, Boyce wanted to re-enforce his World Class status this morning adding: “I worked for the top ten definitely so I’m happy – happy to get that kind of a result in these conditions and back up what I did two years ago in Doha.”
