Leah O'Gara moves within reach of European qualification time after super walk

European possibilities have come into view for Finn Valley AC race walker Leah O’Gara.

At St Anne’s Park in Raheny, O’Gara finished second only to French ace Julia Lebeau.

At the final leg of the World Athletics Race Walking Tour, O’Gara, still an under-16 athlete, clocked 25:45 in a breakout performance.

The Termon teenager, a student at Loreto Secondary School in Letterkenny, is a relative newcomer to race walking. Only Lebeau, one of the many international calibre athletes competing on Sunday, finished ahead of O’Gara, crossing the line in 24:53, with Robin Murphy from Longford third in 25:57.

Coached by former national champion and multiple World and European Masters medallist Sinead McConnell at Finn Valley AC, O’Gara is now within 10 seconds of a qualification time for the 2025 European U18 Athletics Championships.

With those Championships taking place in Rieti, Italy next summer, O’Gara’s targets will now become rather more ambitious.

Sunday’s event included over 250 entries from 30 countries and featured a number of major championship medalists led by Tokyo 2020 Olympic 20km Race Walk Champion Massimo Stano and Paris 2024 silver medalist Caio Bonfin from Brazil. 

Read next: Matthew McCole hits gold in Poland

In an U16 3k race, Finn Valley AC’s Aoife McGranaghan clocked 19:01.

Reuben O Domhnaill of Letterkenny AC finished in 11:04, going over 2km in a boys U14 race.