Further success for Carnegie Race Walkers

Carnegie athletes dominated the CAU Inter Counties Championships with a number of records being broken in the process.

Johanna Jackson shaved one-minute from her two-year-old UK 10km race-walk record and lifetime best at the University of Warwick Counties Athletic Union event.  She recorded a world class time of 43:52, which sets her up nicely for the defence of her title at the EAA Grand Prix 20km in Lugano, Switzerland this coming weekend.

Jackson put the improvement down to her decision to relocate to the UKA National Race Walking Centre at Leeds Met Carnegie,
Jackson said: "This has enabled me to train regularly with other athletes as opposed to on my own and have also benefited from the environment at Carnegie and the medical and support services that are available on Campus."

Her male training partners also enjoyed the Coventry event, all setting new lifetime bests: Brendan Boyce (IRL) won in 41:50, Alex Wright was 2nd in 43:31 and Tom Bosworth 4th in 43:37. Boyce will race in Lugano with Jackson this weekend and will be looking to qualify for the European Athletics Championships and the Irish IAAF World Race Walk Cup Team. Wright and Bosworth are back into hard training in preparation for the UKA/RWA National 20 km Championships and Commonwealth Games Trials in April.
 
In the under 17 men's 5 km Championship 15 year old Nathan Duncan from Cleethorpes went sub-27 minutes for the first time with a win in 26:56 - Nathan has been making the 100 mile+ round trip to Leeds once a week to train with the athletes at The UKA National Centre for Race Walking since November - the elite focus is inclusive not exclusive.
 
There were also personal best performances for athletes who are supported by the UKA Futures Training Group programme that operates with a training camp series at Carnegie: Antonio Cirillo (47:53, Swansea, coach - Martin Bell) and Jonathon Hobbs (51:03, Ashford, coach - Chris Hobbs) were first and third in the U 20 10 km; and Heather Lewis (25:36, Pembroke, coach - Martin Bell) who won the U 17 5 km.