IRELAND’S ALEX WRIGHT suffered disappointment in the 20km walk at the World Championships in London today.

The 26-year-old failed to finish the event owing to a disqualification, having found himself 19th after the first 5k.

In a turbulent afternoon for the London-born racewalker, he also had to replace his shoe after being clipped early on in the event.

Wright was subsequently penalised on three occasions for lifting, defined as ‘losing contact with the ground,’ and got dismissed from the course as a result.

At 4k, someone clipped the back of my shoe, it fell off,” Wright said afterwards. “I had to stop and (resolve that). I spent the next few km after that chasing down the group again, which is very difficult, it just threw me a bit.

“At about 8k, I was chasing and a lot of cautions came in on me. When you’re giving the perception to the judges that you’re falling off the group, it doesn’t look good, so I picked up three cards and was gone.

I just panicked, I wanted to be in that lead group and I gave it everything to catch it… (The judges) are looking for anything that’s not normal, and that wasn’t normal for me.

“My year’s been brilliant. I’ve never had such a consistent, good year. I PB’d three times in a row in the 20k and I was in great shape before this, so I’m very disappointed.”

There was, however, better news for fellow Irish racewalker Rob Heffernan earlier, as he finished an impressive eighth in the 50km walk.

Additional reporting by Will Downing

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