A big group of elite racewalkers has descended once again on the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra for the second month of the AIS funded research

camp. The overall group is much larger than in the first month, back in November. This time around, there are 19 Study participants

Australia: Jared Tallent, Brendon Reading, Ian Rayson, Rhydian Cowley, Nathan Brill

Canada: Evan Dunfee, Inaki Gomez, Ben Thorne

South Africa: Marc Mundell, Lebogang Shange

Poland: Rafal Augustyn, Jakub Jelonek

Sweden: Ato Ibanez, Perseus Karlstrom

Japan: Toru Yamamoto, Yuki Kobayashi, Yuzuru Nakao

Italy: Giovanni Reno

Chile: Yerko Araya

A number of our top women (Regan Lamble, Beki Lee, Tanya Holliday, Rachel Tallent, etc) will also be in Canberra during this time

and training with the men. In addition, a number of our juniors (Adam Garganis, Kyle Swan, Zoe Hunt, Jemima Montag) will travel

to Canberra for 1-3 weeks and also train with the group. That takes the grand total up to 30 walkers.

The walkers kicked off a few days ago with treadmill tests and baseline studies. This morning, they were in action in a 10,000m track

race at the AIS track and it was Canadians Ben Thorne and Inaki Gomez leading the way with some pretty quick walking. I hear that

conditions were tough – 28oC and 50% humidity.

10,000m Test Walk, AIS Track, Bruce, Monday 11 January

1. Ben Thorne CAN 40:25.82

2. Inaki Gomez CAN 40:57.86

3. Lebogang Shange RSA 41:02.92

4. Yerko Araya CHI 41:06.35

5. Perseus Karlstom SWE 42:00.98

6. Rhydian Cowley AUS 42:28.27

7. Rafal Augustyn POL 43:06.26

8. Evan Dunfee CAN 43:17.71

9. Jakub Jelonek POL 43:43.00

10. Ato Ibanez SWE 43:47.18

11. Brendon Reading AUS 43:56.11

12. Jared Tallent AUS 45:01.47

13. Marc Mundell RSA 46:41.58

14. Beki Lee AUS 46:51.66

15. Ian Rayson AUS 47:26.35

16. Giovanni Reno ITA 47:34.18

17. Yuzuru Nakao JPN 47:51.72

18. Nathan Brill AUS 50:48.33

19. Yuki Kobayashi JPN 51:06.94

20. Toru Yamamoto JPN 53:55.14

The camp continues until early February and is a fantastic opportunity for all the walkers to get some quality work in while helping

with a worthwhile research project.

(Texht and photos by Tim Erickson - AUS)

 

Participants at training research camp