BRITISH record holder Jo Jackson admitted her tenth place finish in the 20km race walk in Barcelona was a job well done after hitting her prechampionship target.

Just 12 months ago the Middlesbrough and Cleveland Harrier Jackson suffered disappointment at the World Championships in Berlin as she was disqualified.

But after producing a spirited performance at the European Championships, where for a time she stayed with eventual Russian winner Olga Kaniskina – Jackson was more than content.

Kaniskina led a Russian one-two-three in the 20km race walk at the European Championships, with the Olympic champion romping to a commanding victory through the streets of the Catalan capital in 1:27.44 hours.

Silver went to compatriot Anisya Kirdyapkina, the Russian national champion and the current world leader, as she crossed the line one minutes and 11 seconds off the pace, while Vera Sokolova completed the podium.

“I’m pleased – top ten was my target and I came tenth so I can’t ask for more than that,”

said Jackson, who spent six weeks at an Aviva preparation camp at altitude in the French Pyrenees prior to these championships.

“I’ve worked really hard on technique over the winter and it obviously paid off.

“To be honest, I didn’t want to think about last year at all while I was in the race. There was no point dwelling on it, I just wanted to focus on this year and technically I was a lot better.

“I’m happy – it was a hard race but it definitely made up for Berlin. I was lucky that most of the race was in the shade so I never really noticed the heat.

“I just kept trying to keep myself cool, throwing water on me every lap and it worked.”

Through the first two kilometres Jackson maintained a place at the back of the leading group as her competitors began to filter.

A quarter of the way through the race she had progressed into the pack to hold a more stable place but soon after the Russian and Spanish walkers introduced disruption, breaking free and setting themselves aside as potential winners.

Jackson then took on a new campaign to pick off her competitors one by one and reach her placing target.

Between two and 10k she had moved from 16th to 12th place and then improved again to tenth place at 16k.

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