Marcia dal Mondo - Dettaglio News - 26/09/2017 - Around Taihu (CHN) - 3° stage 10,5km Yuangboyuan - Victories of Dane Bird-Smith (AUS) and Qieyang Shenijie (CHN)

HOW TO JUDGE RACE WALKING
by Jeff Salvage & Gary Westerfield

26/09/2017 Around Taihu (CHN) - 3° stage 10,5km Yuangboyuan - Victories of Dane Bird-Smith (AUS) and Qieyang Shenijie (CHN)

The beautifully scenic Garden Expo was the venue for day three of the Around Taihu festival and the weather conditions were a complete contrast to the first two days.

High temperature (32°C) and humidity greeted the athletes for the 10.5km race held around three laps.

Men professional race

The day belonged to Dane Bird-Smith (AUS) who went to the front from the gun and was never in danger of being caught.

At the end of the first of three laps he was already 30 seconds ahead and he increased this to over one minute at the end of lap two. Lebogang Shange (RSA) lead the chasing pack and made a break on the last lap and whilst he made inroads in to Bird-Smiths lead that was never any doubt that this stage belonged to the Aussie.

The pit lane was stationed 400m from the finish line and as Linke, Karlstrom, Chocho, Bonfim, Liakhovich, Zhu Guowen all got pulled in it was left to Gao Wenkui (CHN) to take third.

Linke recovered quickly and finished fourth with Evan Dunfee (CAN) moving into take fifth whilst his competitors could only watch from the pit lane.

Arrival order:

1st Dane Bird-Smith (AUS): 42:10

2nd Lebogang Shange (RSA): 42:59

3rd Gao Wenkui (CHN): 43:14

4th Chrisatopher Linke (GER): 43:34

5th Evan Dunfee (CAN): 43:49

6th Song Huazhang (CHN): 43:52

7th Andres Chocho (ECU): 43:54

8th Caio Bonfim (BRA): 43:54

Men professional race individual after 3rd stage

1st Dane Bird-Smith (AUS): 2:46:27

2nd Lebogang Shange (RSA): 2:47:08

3rd Caio Bonfim (BRA): 2:48:15

4th Christopher Linke (GER): 2:50:00

4th Perseus Karlstrom (SWE): 2:50:00

6th Gao Wenkui (CHN): 2:50:01

7th Andres Chocho (ECU): 2:50:02

8th Evan Dunfee (CAN): 2:50:05

Team standing after 3rd stage

1st Latin Power (Caio Bonfim, Andres Chocho, Isaac Palma, Ever Palma, Lebogang Shange): 8:25:25

2nd Beef Extreme (Dane Bird-Smith, Christopher Linke, Perseus Karlstrom, Tom Bosworth): 8:26:27

3rd China (Yang Hu, Zhang Jun, Zhu Guowen, Jin Xianqian, Song Huazhang): 8:42:14

4th J.T. Salute (Rafal Augustyn, Evan Dunfee, Quentin Rew): 8:44:49

5th Boy in Green (Brendan Boyce, Alex Wright, Damian Blocki, Wayne Seaman): 8:44:58

At the individual level, the fight for victory is tightened between Dane Bird-Smith and Lebogang Shange and will be Dongshan's uphill to decide.

Today, however, it is very difficult for the South African to recover 41" to the Aussie. We remember the last year's gorgeous race on the same uphill.

At the team level the fight in our opinion is still open.

Recovering Beef Extreme by 58" does not seem impossible on Dongshan downhill where all the walkers will have to pay attention to any penalties.

The course is very muscular so fatigue can be felt.

Yuanboyuan: phases of men race (photos by Lorenzo Dessì - ITA)

Dane Bird-Smith during the race (photo by the Assistan of Jean Pierre Dahm - CHN)

Yuanboyuan: men race podium (photos by Lorenzo Dessì - ITA)

Women professional race

Qieyang Shijie (CHN) took the third stage of the Taihu festival with ease, like Bird-Smith she went to the front and was once again never headed.

Behind her a group of three formed but Erica de Sena (BRA) moved ahead to take a comfortable second at the finish.

Antonella Palmisano (ITA) walked strongly for third whilst Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL) and Kimberly Garcia (PER) both faded and were caught by the fast finishing Viktoria Madarasz (HUN) and Nadia Borovska (UKR).

Arrival order:

1st Qieyang Shenijie (CHN): 45:50

2nd Erica de Sena (BRA): 46:26

3rd Antonella Palmisano (ITA): 46:39

4th Viktoria Madarasz (HUN): 46:49

5th Nadia Borovska (UKR): 46:56

6th Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL): 46:58

7th Kimberly Garcia (PER): 47:17

8th Inna Kashyna (UKR): 48:01

Women professional race individual after 3rd stage

1st Antonella Palmisano (ITA): 3:00:38

2nd Erica de Sena (BRA): 3:00:55

3rd Nie Jingjing (CHN): 3:01:43

4th Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL): 3:02:43

5th Nadia Borovska (UKR): 3:03:50

6th Victoria Madarasz (HUN): 3:04:19

7th Kimberly Garcia (PER): 3:06:26

8th Julia Takacs (ESP): 3:06:26

Team standing after 3rd stage

1st Latinas (Erica de Sena, Sandra Lorena Arenas, Kimberly Garcia): 9:10:04

2nd Heroes (Antonella Palmisano, Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene, Viktoria Madarasz): 9:12:12

3rd INTER F3 (Nadia Borovska, Inna Kashyna, Ainhoa Pinedo, Julia Takacs): 9:16:38

4th China (Qieyang Shenijie, Nie Jingjing, Xie Lijuan, Mao Yanxue): 9:24:04

5th UBA (Beki Smith, Claire Tallent, Hanna Drabenia, Tamara Havryliuk) 9:51:29

The ups and downs of Dongshan will decide between Antonella Palmisano and Erica de Sena as one of the two will be the winner of this Around Taihu edition.

Seventeen seconds separate the two contenders, but we believe that the difference will make the approach to the race. The two athletes are well acquainted and know how to compete, but while Antonella Palmisano is new to this Four Days, Erica de Sena has already participated in and she knows the traps of Dongshan hills.

Last year on the same stage won Qieyang Shenijie (CHN) in 43:54, Erica de Sena (BRA) was third in 44:55 and Nie Jingjing (CHN) was fourth in 45:23.

Race still open at Team level among the Latinas, which are today in the first place, and the Heroes.

A recovery of 2:08 is difficult, but it is not impossible on the ups and downs of Dongshan, where even the technique will say its voice.

Last year the other contenders of the two teams recorded the following results: Viktoria Madarasz (HUN) 10th in 46:06, Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene (LTU) 14th in 46:34 and Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL) 17th in 47:19.

We will see how the new entries Antonella Palmisano (ITA) and Kimberly Garcia (PER) will compete tomorror.

Certainly we are witnessing a thrilling Around Taihu in every aspect.

Congratulations to the organizers, but above all to the athletes for making it live this way !

And finally end a happy birthday to Inna Kashyna (UKR) for her 26 years tomorrow !!!

Full results in the section Results or download directly from this link: click here

Full results of promotional Youth races (and standing at 3rd day) in the section Results or download directly from this link: click here

Photo album of Four days of Around Taihu: click here