Patient Griffin gets the job done

OLYMPICS LONDON 2012:TWO WARNINGS early on and gruelling hot conditions were not to enough to derail Colin Griffin's dogged determination to qualify for the London Olympics – his 3:52:55 for the 50km walk at the IAAF World Cup in Saransk, Russia, finally earning him his just reward.

It was almost certainly his last chance, yet Griffin made the most of it – finishing 15th overall, well inside the 3:59:00 A-standard. He brings to 18 the number of Irish athletes so far qualified for London, already more A-standards than ever before – with at least a couple more still likely.

While Griffin can relax now too, becoming just the third Irish qualifier in the men’s 50km walk along with Rob Heffernan and Brendan Boyce, there was disappointment for Jamie Costin and Michael Doyle, who both dropped out in the latter stages, the heat of Saransk no doubt partly contributing to their failure.

It also saves Athletics Ireland from another selection dilemma similar to the women’s marathon: Griffin qualified for Beijing four years ago, but has been hounded by technical difficulties since, disqualified in his last two major races, and also losing his High Performance grant earlier this year.

He was shown two warnings inside the opening 10km yesterday, but kept his nerve and composure – actually moving up through the field in the last 25km, from 38th to 15th.

“Job done,” he said afterwards, “although hot conditions and two warning cards after 10k made it a lot more challenging.”

Olive Loughnane produced an equally important performance ahead of London in the women’s 20km when finishing eighth in a season’s best of 1:31:32 – again working her way up through the field in impressive fashion.

Russia’s Elena Lashmanova took the win there in 1:27:38, yet Loughnane, at 36 and already qualified for London from last year, wasn’t far off the form that saw her win World Championship silver in 2009: “I’m delighted with eighth position and a season’s best,” she said.

Laura Reynolds fell short of her A-standard target of 1:33.30, fading in the latter stages, finishing 35th in 1:37:06. Robert Heffernan placed 12th in 1:21.51 in Saturday’s men’s 20km while Kate Veale finished sixth in the junior women’s 10km.

Maireád Murphy has broken the Irish heptathlon record by placing fourth in the US Big 12 College Conference meeting in Kansas: Murphy scored 5399 points, added five points to the previous record held by Sharon Foley (with bests of 100m Hurdles 13.88, high Jump 1.63, shot putt 11.31, 200m 24.61, long jump 5.66, javelin 31.59 and 800m 2.18.8).