Olive Loughnane (IRL) in Cheboksary (© Getty Images)
On a rain soaked morning in Beijing the Women’s Olympic 20km Race Walk was won by one of the firmest favourites for gold, in the slender shape of Olga Kaniskina. Notwithstanding an Olympic record time, the Russian didn’t appear to thrive in the conditions, allowing a big lead to diminish to 12 seconds by the finish. Of the other contenders racing up behind perhaps the most surprising was Ireland’s Olive Loughnane.
Obviously entirely impervious to a bit of a drenching, Olive powered through from 13th at half way to claim seventh place at the finish. Within about half a minute of a medal she smashed her personal best time to record 1:27.45 which was also inside the old Olympic record, and 92 seconds superior to her previous best set in the World Cup three months earlier.
In fact, Loughnane was the fastest in the whole race over the second 10km, and the only racer walker in the top ten to produce a negative split.
“I think I’d been stuck on a personal best of about 90 minutes for five years”, joked the 33-year-old from Cork when considering on what led to her emergence last summer.
“Initially, the target for 2008 was to break 90 minutes. I just didn’t expect to break it by quite so much in Beijing.”
Radical improvement in 2008
Loughnane’s previous best performance at 20 km dated back to the 2003 European Cup - when Irish women’s race walking was dominated by Gillian O’Sullivan, who went on to win the silver medal at that year’s World Championship, where Loughnane followed, in 12th position.
Unlike her injured compatriot, Loughnane took part in the Athens Olympics but did not finish there, and featured to the fore in only one major championship, 17th place in Osaka, in the intervening three seasons.
“I always tended to get anaemic due to a combination of things”, said Loughnane looking back.
“I had a rough couple of years when I struggled mentally. I didn’t finish in Athens (Olympics) and I found that very difficult. Then I had a year out to have Eimear in 2006, and although my best time stood for five years there were maybe one or two years when things had been difficult for me but then because I’d taken time out it wasn’t such a big stretch really.”
“I came back perhaps too quickly after giving birth so it took a little while to build my body up properly which is why I struggled in 2007. But it made me very mentally tough. The fact that I was competing even when my body wasn’t right meant in 2008, when my body was good, I had that mental strength to take proper advantage of it.”
In her first showing over 20km at Rio Maior (POR) in April in the second IAAF Challenge race of 2008, Loughnane came close to the target with a promising sixth placing in a time of 1:30:51, her fastest since 2004.
Loughnane was sixth again in her next 20km in May which was at the World Cup in Cheboksary, Russia, achieving time of 1:29:17, on the same course she’d set her previous personal best five years earlier.
No surprise, then, to see her sixth again, this time in a more modest 1:31:22 in her next challenge race at La Coruña, Spain, in June.
But it was at the Olympics where she produced her real breakthrough, in a time of 1:27:45 for seventh place. She went on to finish seventh overall in the IAAF World Race Walking Challenge, held back by disqualification in the final held after the Olympic Games.
Everything comes together
Like motherhood, Loughnane considers her re-emergence may have been hard work, but entirely natural and to be appreciated.
“I had been training very well and knew I was training well. I was just one of those years where everything really came together for me.”
“For the World Cup in Cheboksary I hadn’t really eased down in training or over-focused on the event. It was quite obviously the second most important race of the year but in Beijing I was properly rested which was worth that extra minute and a half to me.”
“Also, the conditions the right on the day and it was a very competitive race. Everything came together and it was just one of those days. You have to appreciate them when they come along!”
“I won my points in the Challenge in all the difficult races - like the World Cup and Olympics. So I like to say I won my points the hard way. I suppose in an Olympic year you have to take your points where you can but this year it will be easier to focus more on the Challenge.”
Technique and hard racing on the agenda for 2009
For the coming season, Loughnane who coaches herself, has identified technique and a busy racing schedule as key building on her improvements.
“We did our 20km in Santry before Christmas (1:33:16 for 20km), so I’ve been taking things handily enough before going into heavier training. I’m working now with Montse Paulenca, who advises Francisco Fernández (along with Robert Korzeniowski), because I want to try to improve my technique.”
“I’m hoping to do Mexico, definitely doing Rio Maior and I’ll do Sesto San Giovanni (ITA) and Krakow (POL) - plus the European Cup - so it’s going to be a busy me!”
“Before that, at the start of February, I’ll be going to Gaudix, Spain, to meet up with Montse. In a technical event you need someone overseeing you to advice on technique. You need an experienced eye”.
Loughnane’s elevated expectations means she hopes to feature strongly at the World Championships and has half an eye on the 24 second improvement required to overhaul Gillian O’Sullivan’s national record which was set on her way to victory in the inaugural 2003 IAAF World Race Walking Challenge.
“My personal best now is a very competitive personal best so in Berlin I hope that I can be competitive. It would be nice to have an Irish Record alright.”
“One of the things I’ll be concentrating on is racing harder through the season so my target for this year is to perfect my technique and get more hard, tough racing experience and that will bring with it whatever it brings.”
Looking further ahead, “I’ll be 36 for London 2012 and for us London is so close to home. I’m working on it year to year and ultimately I want to be very competitive there,” confirmed Loughnane.
Tim Watt for the IAAF