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CONGRATULATIONS MR. MCDONALD!!!

We are all very proud of Mr. McDonald who won a gold and bronze medal at the European and World Masters events in Ancona, Italy.

Some children and teachers went to the airport to welcome Mr. McDonald back and we all went to the hall on Tuesday to congratulate him and hear all about his exciting time.

Jimmy McDonald - Double World Master - Champion at 10 km and 5 km Racewalking

RACE WALKING: New Ross native and former Olympian Jimmy McDonald has brought home two titles from the World Masters Athletic championships in Finland.

Jimmy won the first of the two golds by walking his fastest time over five kilometres since returning to competitive action three years ago.

He hung on for victory, winning in a time of 22 minutes and 11 seconds. 'It was a very, very close race between myself and Axel Ollech from Germany,' he said. 'I had walked just before I went out to Finland in a 5 km in the Phoenix Park in 22 minutes, 31 seconds, which is about 12 seconds faster than what I had done in the European Indoors in March, but I came through with a time of 22.11 in Finland.

'It came down to the last 300 metres. That time was the fastest time of all the age groups; I had the fastest 5km time of the championships,' he added.

A few days later, Jimmy won the 10km race in a time of 46.37. 'It is great - you have an expectation of yourself that hopefully you will be able to produce a very good race, so when it all came to fruition it was like, oh great - at least I did it,' said Jimmy, who would never have thought of competing in the Masters if it wasn't for a phone call he received two years ago from Mick McKeon from the Menapians club.

'He asked me would I join the club as a race walker - he got me back into race walking again and only for that phone call I wouldn't have competed in the championships,' he added.

Jimmy competed in the Olympics three times, with his best outing being in Barcelona in 1992 when he came sixth. His last real competitive outing was in 1996 when he finished the Olympics in Atlanta.

In April, 2008, he decided to start back training, a task which he felt was quite difficult in the beginning, and in May/June of that year he began to aim for the World Masters championships.

Jimmy was born at 5 William Street, New Ross, to parents the recently deceased Myles and the late Bernadette and spent most of life in Pondsfield. He now lives in Co. Meath and teaches in Holy Family S.N.S. in Swords, Co. Dublin.