The second day of the classic "Around Taihu" took place in the center of the host city of Mudu, on a 10km course.
If the athletes thought the first day was wet then they were in for a shock as thunder storms flooded the streets of Mudu, venue for the second stage of the Around Taihu festival.
Simply floods and the wide avenues of Mudu are at times quite flooded, making the athletes in hard walking.
Men professional race
The weather didn’t prevent the athletes from holding back and a large group once again set off.
This time the pace was fast, competing today over only 10km.
The main protagonists were once again to the fore but unusually Lebogang Shange (RSA) was at the front from an early stage.
The shorter distance left little time for tactics and Shange was joined by Bird Smith, Bonfim, Linke, Karlstrom and Jin at the front.
The weather didn’t appear to affect the walkers dispite them having to wade through puddles ankle deep and it was Shange who forged ahead to take victory just ahead of Bird Smith and Bonfim.
The first ten athletes all finished within 60 seconds of each other as it proved to be a very close battle throughout the field.
Arrival order:
1st Lebogang Shange (RSA): 39:48
2nd Dane Bird-Smith (AUS): 39:55
3rd Caio Bonfim (BRA): 40:00
4th Chrisatopher Linke (GER): 40:08
5th Jin Xiangqian (CHN): 40:23
6th Perseus Karlstrom (SWE): 40:24
7th Evan Dunfee (CAN): 40:31
8th Gao Wenkui (CHN): 40:31
Men professional race individual after 2nd stage
1st Lebogang Shange (RSA): 2:04:09
2nd Dane Bird-Smith (AUS): 2:04:17
3rd Caio Bonfim (BRA): 2:04:21
4th Perseus Karlstrom (SWE): 2:04:43
5th Jin Xiangqian (CHN): 2:04:47
6th Andres Chocho (ECU): 2:06:08
7th Evan Dunfee (CAN): 2:06:16
8th Christopher Linke (GER): 2:06:26
Team standing after 2nd stage
1° Latin Power (Caio Bonfim, Andres Chocho, Isaac Palma, Ever Palma, Lebogang Shange): 6:14:38
2° Beef Extreme (Dane Bird-Smith, Christopher Linke, Perseus Karlstrom, Tom Bosworth): 6:15:26
3° China (Yang Hu, Zhang Jun, Zhu Guowen, Jin Xianqian, Song Huazhang): 6:26:15
4° NB Ukraine (Ivan Banzeruk, Ruslan Dmytrenko, Ivan Losev): 6:26:55
5° Boy in Green (Brendan Boyce, Alex Wright, Damian Blocki, Wayne Seaman): 6:27:18
Is cofirmed the tight comparison for the top five individual positions with athletes separated by only 36".
At Team level compared to the previous day, the rankings remained virtually unaltered.
In third place, however, there is the entry of China's first team that has slightly exceeded NB Ukraine.
(cover photo by Dave Smith - AUS)
Leading pack
Women professional race
Having suffered from sickness (and interrupted a pregnancy) on day one it was a return to form for 2012 Olympic silver medallist Qieyang Shenijie (CHN) as she headed the womens field from start to finish to win convincingly from Erica de Sena (BRA) repeating her Mudu stage win of last year.
The race starts at the rhythm imposed by Qieyang Shenijie (CHN), who never ceases to be surprised by the tactics of walking the four-day race. Yesterday just 26th (1:43:22) and it seemed she was still work off the 20km of recent Chinese Games, now she is at the attack.
Along with her, all the others seem to be very jaunty Erica de Sena (BRA) and Nie Jingjing (CHN).
The finishing positions seemed to have been decided very early on as Erica de Sena managed to stay ahead of Nie who was a clear third (despite a 30" stop in the Pit Lane Area) in front of Sandra Lorena Arenas and Kimberly Garcia (PER) competing in China for the first time.
Antonella Palmisano was the next on the road followed by Nadia Borovska (UKR).
Arrival order:
1st Qieyang Shenijie (CHN): 42:46
2nd Erica de Sena (BRA): 43:03
3rd Nie Jingjing (CHN): 43:05
4th Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL): 43:16
5th Kimberly Garcia (PER): 43:23
6th Antonella Palmisano (ITA): 43:27
7th Li Maucuo (CHN): 43:42
8th Nadia Borovska (UKR): 43:59
Women professional race individual after 2nd stage
1st Nie Jingjing (CHN): 2:13:18
2nd Antonella Palmisano (ITA): 2:13:59
3rd Erica de Sena (BRA): 2:14:29
4th Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL): 2:15:45
5th Nadia Borovska (UKR): 2:16:54
6th Victoria Madarasz (HUN): 2:17:30
7th Li Maucuo (CHN): 2:17:35
8th Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene (LTU): 2:17:45
Team standing after 2nd stage
1° Heroes (Antonella Palmisano, Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene, Viktoria Madarasz): 6:49:14
2° Latinas (Erica de Sena, Sandra Lorena Arenas, Kimberly Garcia): 6:49:23
3° INTER F3 (Nadia Borovska, Inna Kashyna, Ainhoa Pinedo, Julia Takacs): 6:53:04
4° China (Qieyang Shenijie, Nie Jingjing, Xie Lijuan, Mao Yanxue): 6:58:20
5° UBA (Beki Smith, Claire Tallent, Hanna Drabenia, Tamara Havryliuk) 7:19:29