Ireland's Gillian O'Sullivan set a new Irish record for the women's 20k walk when finishing second at the Waterford Crystal International Grand Prix of Race Walking in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

O'Sullivan's time of 1:29.11 took 42 seconds off her previous best. Winning the race was Sydney Olympics silver medal winner Kjersti Platzer from Norway who recorded a season's best time of 1:28.54. In third place was Italy's Erica Alfridi.

In the men's 20k, Robert Heffernan was outside his own Irish record when he won in a time of 1:21.32, but still had almost a minute to spare on second placed Allassandro Gandellini of Italy. Finishing third in a career best time of 1:22.45 was a delighted James Costin from Waterford, currently the Irish 50k record holder. The men's 50k race was won by Denmark's Jacob Sorensen in a time of 3:51.46, just eight seconds outside the Irish all-comer's record.

Results
Waterford Crystal International Grand Prix of Race Walking, Phoenix Park.
Women - 20k: 1 K Platzer (Nor) 1:28.54; 2 G O'Sullivan (Ire) 1:29.11 (Irish rec) ; 3 E Rigato (Ita) 1:30.42.
10K : 1 L Kehler (Eng) 45: 52.56; 2 N Menendez (Eng) 46:37.55; 3 J Hesketh (Eng) 54:39.52. Jun: S Hales (Eng) 52:24. U19 3k: 1 C McMahon (Bilboa) 15.17; 2 C Byrne (Hacketstown) 16:41.34; 3 N Fox (Eng) 16:58.92.
U17 3k: 1 A Loughnane (Loughrea) 14:16.33; 2 C Tomlin (Eng) 17:20.47; 3 A Burtenshaw (Monasterevin) 18:06.43.
U15 2k: 1 R Mersh (Eng) 10:13.18; 2 J Gagg (Eng) 10:31.94; 3 L Reynolds (Mohill) 10:36.96.
U13 1k: 1 K Granger (Eng) 6:31.77; 2 L Ginsom (Eng) 6:33.38; 3 N Green (Eng) 6:34.54.

Men - 20k: 1 R Heffernan (Ire) 1:21.32; 2 A Gandellini (Ita) 1:22.22; 3 J Costin (Ire) 1:22.45.
50k: 1 J Sorensen (Den) 3:51.46; 2 L Garcia (Guat) 4:30.06; 3 M Smith (Eng) 4:44.56.
U17 3k 1 347?? 14.09; 2 P Merry (Eng) 14.14; 3 P Muldoon (Shercock) 15.23.
U15 2k: 1 N Ball (Eng) 9:31.08; 2 D Brown (Eng) 9:53.58; 3 S Hambridge(Eng) 9:55.48.
U13 1k: 1 P Gahan (Hacketstown) 5:02.85; 2 M O'Kane (Eng) 5:16.79; 3 N Arnell (Eng) 5:02.85.

Click here for complete results from the AAI website.

Thanks to Pierce O'Callaghan for this report.