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Why Olive Loughnane isn't angry with the Russian athlete who took her World gold

Olive Loughnane says she feels no anger towards the Russian athlete who originally prevented&nbsp...
Newstalk
Newstalk

14.04 6 Jul 2016


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Why Olive Loughnane isn&#3...

Why Olive Loughnane isn't angry with the Russian athlete who took her World gold

Newstalk
Newstalk

14.04 6 Jul 2016


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Olive Loughnane says she feels no anger towards the Russian athlete who originally prevented her from getting the World Championship gold medal she deserved in 2009.

Loughnane finished second in the 20km race behind Olga Kaniskina, who was later stripped of the gold medal due to doping violatins.

But seven years on, Loughnane will now receive that gold medal in a formal presentation at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam.

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That will take place at 7.15pm Irish time tonight.

Ahead of a momentous night, the now retired Loughnane spoke to Newstalk Lunchtime's Jonathan Healy and insists she feels no fury towards Kaniskina.

"No, I'm really not angry with her because there's no point in one sense and I think I had such an exciting night on the night and I had trained very hard and I expected to do very well. I'd expected to win a medal but it was very much out of the blue," she told Jonathan.

 

"So it was such a surprise to everyone at the time and I performed so well on the day. I couldn't have done anymore. I didn't really think about that. And even when it was silver, I probably got more out of it than she did. She knew in her heart of hearts that she wasn't clean."

Loughnane will now become Ireland's fourth ever World Champion after Eamonn Coghlan, Sonia O'Sullivan and Rob Heffernan.


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