28 July 2010

On a glorious morning on the Passeig de Picasso in the heart of Barcelona Jo Jackson (Andi Drake) finished tenth in the 20k race walk, meeting her exact placing target and banishing the ghosts of her 2009 World Championships disappointment.

Following a six week Aviva preparation camp at altitude in the French Pyrenees Jackson came into the competition confident but realistic about what lay ahead: “I was pleased to get the top ten target, that’s what I set out to do.”

Following disqualification in Berlin last year she demonstrated the potential to compete against top international competition with a solid, strong performance amongst the best in Europe.

Through the first two kilometres Jackson maintained a place at the back of the leading group as her competitors began to filter.  

A quarter of the way through the race she had progressed into the pack to hold a more stable place but soon after the Russian and Spanish walkers introduced disruption, breaking free and setting themselves aside as potential winners.

Jackson then took on a new campaign to pick off her competitors one by one and reach her placing target.

Between two and 10k she had moved from sixteenth to twelfth place and then improved again to tenth place at 16k. She maintained through the last four kilometres and finished in 1:33.33.

“The best thing was to get round with no cards, that’s down to alot of hard technical work in the winter. It made up for last year.”

“I knew I would pick them off eventually, it was just a case of not panicking.”