The Mexican Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez, silver medal in Rio de Janeiro in the 20km women's walk, will start the season 2017 and will be the star of the IAAF Challenge in Ciudad Juarez (MEX) on March 12, 2017.

The announcement was made by the event organizers.

Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez, 28 years, was perhaps the athlete with the fastest growing sport in Latin America in the last Olympic cycle when she approached the race walk to recover from a knee injury and in two years has won silver in Rio 2016 and the IAAF World Team Championships in Rome, again last year.

In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, she will start as a favorite, but she should fight with Erica de Sena (BRA), Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL) and the Portuguese Ines Henriques and Ana Cabecinha.

After the silver won in Rio the Mexican athlete stopped to train with coach Juan Hernandez, and began training with her boyfriend, Esteban Santos. It will therefore be very interesting to see in Ciudad Juarez the effects of this change.

Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez is keen to remain among the best in the world and also would lower his Mexican record of 1:26:17.

The challenge of Ciudad Juarez will also be interesting in the men's competition with Jared Tallent (AUS), silver in the 50km in Rio, Alvaro Martin (ESP), bronze aI IAAF World Team in 2016, Perseus Karlstrom (SWE) and Inaki Gomez (CAN) and Evan Dunfee (CAN).

For Central and South America will compete Andrés Chocho (ECU) and Horacio Nava (MEX).

Mexico among others will present a high-level team, led by Omar Pineda, Tadeo Vega, Eder Sanchez, the brothers Isaac and Ever Palma, Julio Salazar and Pedro Daniel Gómez, among others.

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