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Top World Race Walking Champion ROBERT KORZENIOWSKI of Poland
who is the holder of 3 Olympic Gold medals will be competing
in the 5K event in the televised Irish Indoor Athletic Championships
at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast on 14th & 15th February
2004. This second ever indoor meeting in the North has been
made possible by the generous assistance of the Northern Ireland
Events Company, the Sports Council for Northern Ireland, River
Rock and
Belfast City Council.
35-year-old KORZENIOWSKI's Olympic Games achievements have
made him a road walking legend. He had an inauspicious start
when he was disqualified when in 2nd place just before the
finish in the Barcelona stadium in the 1992 Olympic 50K Walk.
However, he returned with a vengeance to take the 1996 Olympic
crown in Atlanta and successfully defended this title 4 years
later in Sydney - the first man ever to do so. ROBERT achieved
another unique
double in Sydney when he also took the 20K title to capture
2 gold medals in the space of 6 days.
KORZENIOWSKI's sportstar status was further enhanced last
August in the World Championships in Paris where he won the
50K event in a new World Record of 3 hours 36.03 secs. His
versatility is shown by the fact that he is also the current
5K Road World Record Holder at 18 mins 21 secs.
With such a pedigree yet another world best time at the Odyssey
Arena is not impossible following from last year's World 3K
Record set by Ireland's GILLIAN O'SULLIVAN who will also be
competing next weekend. KORZENIOWSKI's opposition will include
top GB 10K ranked athletes DANIEL KING (Colchester) and ANDREW
DRAKE (Coventry) along with last year's winner
Irishman ROBERT HEFFERNAN.
Already announced for this meeting are World Championship
Bronze medallist DARREN CAMPBELL, GILLIAN O'SULLIVAN, Belfast's
World Indoor 400m bronze medallist PAUL McKEE, 400m Irish
record holder KAREN SHINKINS and former Commonwealth and multi
AAA's High Jump Record holder DALTON GRANT.
For further details please contact:
Brian Hill
Public Relations Officer, Northern Ireland Athletic Federation
Telephone: 028 9127 9630 (B) 0797 7037629 (Mobile)
NIAF Office: 028 9060 2707
or
Pierce O'Callaghan
Athletic Association of Ireland, 11 Prospect Road,
Glasnevin, Dublin 9
Tel: 087-6645198
www.athleticsireland.ie
Source the Athletics Ireland
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