Dave Smith (AUS) is a guest of the Qinhuangdao Center, which was recently inaugurated as China National Junior Race-Walking School (U20).

He sent us this short report on this experience, which we have the pleasure of publishing along with some of his photos.

The new China Racewalking School for Juniors is now officially opened with 75 athletes initially culled down to 40 over the last week with all training in full swing.

The centre has wonderful shared accommodation for the young athletes (all aged between 16, 17, 18 and 19) male and female. 

These are the best athletes from provinces all over China with another 500 waiting in the wings .

The meals are prepared every day with a mind to athlete nutrition and the gyms and tracks are new and fitted with all of the necessary training apparatus.

China Athletics Association has invested heavily in the current setup with a long term view to the future for Chinese race-walkers . The Senior team is here training which includes all of their support staff and management team . 

So, all up there would be around 120 race-walkers here and about 20 support staff. 

They will send athletes from here to domestic and international competitions around the world. 

It is a wonderful innovation and a testament to their committment to race-walking .

I have an elite squad of athletes including a young girl from Tibet and all are adapting and adopting a new and different way of training that hopefully can include both the cultural differences and western modes of training.

So far, it has been hard work and lots of fun.

Dave Smith