13 May 2010

Jo Jackson (Red Car) will represent the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at the forthcoming IAAF World Race Walking Cup which will be held in the Mexican city of Chihuahua on 15-16 May.

Jackson, who will be competing in the Women’s 20km, will be looking to build on her impressive third place performance at the IAAF Race Walking Challenge event in Milan earlier this month, which crowned her the first British athlete to reach the podium at an IAAF Challenge Event.

Medal rivals come from the strong Russian and Chinese teams, the Portuguese team led by Vera Santos and Spain’s Olympic Bronze medallist Maria Vasco, who was the winner in Milan.

In the Men’s 20km home favourite Eder Sanchez will hope to be inspired to his first major global title by the home crowd. His main competition will come from European 50km Champion Yohann Diniz (France), former Olympic Champion Italian Ivano Brugneti and Norwegian Eric Tysee, as well as the ever present Russian and Chinese teams.

This will be the second time Mexico, which has a strong walking tradition, will hold the IAAF World Race Walking Cup and it is the first time the event has been held outside of Europe since 1995.