31 August 2011

On day five of the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, attention shifted away from the Daegu Stadium to Gukchae-Bosang Memorial park for the women’s 20k race walk in what was the only event of the day.

Jo Jackson (coach: Andi Drake) was the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team’s sole representative on an extremely humid morning in downtown Daegu. The Middlesbrough & Cleveland athlete finished in 23rd place out of a field of 50 walkers.

The result marked a happy return to the World Championships for the UK record holder having been disqualified from the competition two years in Berlin.

Defending champion Olga Kaniskina regained her title with an impressive walk to cement her status as number one in the world.

Throughout the first five kilometres Jackson remained with the leading group but as the pace accelerated, the 2010 Commonwealth champion was cut adrift as Russian duo Kaniskina and Vera Sokolova showed their intention.

At the halfway stage 26-year-old Jackson was in 32nd place – moving up two spots since the 5k mark. As the race drew to a conclusion the humidity rose to a staggering 88 percent but Jackson battled through the conditions impressively rising up the leader board to finish 23rd in a time of 1:35.32.

“I found the conditions fine, I keep myself really well cooled and hydrated,” said Jackson. “I went into this with a bit of a knee niggle and it’s caused a bit of trouble with my technique – I wouldn’t use it as an excuse. I ended up picking up two cards which I wouldn’t really expect.

“I felt really strong and felt like I had too much in the tank when I finished. At about 6k I could feel my hamstring pulling and I thought it’s going to go so I was a bit cautious. It was at that point the lead group got away and then it was just catching up from there but it was a bit too much.

“It was nice to get rid of the Berlin memories but I would have liked to have been in with the front group. I kept fighting all the way through, I didn’t give in.”

World Championship action featuring Aviva GB & NI team members continues on Thursday morning and includes, amongst others,  Goldie Sayers (Dan Pfaff) in the women’s javelin qualifying, Chris Tomlinson (Frank Attoh) and Greg Rutherford (Dan Pfaff) in the men’s long jump qualifying and Jenny Meadows (Trevor Painter) as one of three GB representatives in the women’s 800m.

Aviva GB & NI medals so far:

Sunday 28 August       Mo Farah        Men’s 10,000m           Silver 

Monday 29 August      Andy Turner    Men’s 110mH              Bronze

Tuesday 30 August     Jess Ennis       Heptathlon                  Silver

Top 8 finishes

Monday 29 August      William Sharman        Men’s 110mH              5th

UKA will provide daily news reports from the 2011 World Championships on www.uka.org.uk and quotes from Aviva GB & NI athletes as well as regular updates via twitter @uka_athletics and Facebook www.facebook.com/UKAofficial

For full results visit: http://daegu2011.iaaf.org/Home.aspx