The fourth and final day of the "Around Taihu" challenge took place over 10km on what has become the traditional undulating Dongshan course. Weather was the best it has been all week and although humid walkers did not suffer the heat or rain as in previous days.
The Dongshan hilly course has given its final answer and it was a great response that united in the 2017 Around Taihu victory of two Countries almost to the antipodes, but two Countries in which race walking has always lived as part of the athletics.
They won, and we will see in detail, in the women the Italian Antonella Palmisano, at her first presence here at Taihu, which crowns such a happy season as never before, and in men the Australian Dane Bird-Smith who had already won last year.
Dongshan - Luxiang Old Village
Men professional race
We will never know if Gao Wenkui (CHN) and Dane Bird-Smith (AUS) have done as they sometimes do in cycling when they come together: "I win the yellow shirt and you win the stage."
The fact is that the 2017 arrival order reflects exactly that of 2016 only to reversed parts.
Dongshan hills give another great day, although last year's record (40:38) remains at Dane Bird-Smith.
Today, however, to celebrate the personal best (in the top eight) on this ascent are Lebogang Shange (RSA) which improves the performnace of 41:58 obtained in 2016 with his third place, and also Andres Chocho (ECU) (in 2016: 44: 03), Evan Dunfee (CAN) (2016: 42:55) and Caio Bonfim (BRA) (2016: 42:09).
A short report.
Nick Christie (USA) made an early showing leading the field through 3km but was soon swallowed up by the pack that included Bird-Smith and Shange who were leading the overall standings.
As the race progressed sadly Karlstrom fell away through injury thus putting paid to his chances of overall victory.
Jin Xiangqian (CHN) and Yang Hu (CHN) both forced the pace but were picking up cards from the judges along the way and were eventually disqualified.
This left Gao Wenkui in the pack with Bird-Smith and Shange. Shange was also attracting the judges attention and after receiving two cautions he held back in order to secure his overall position.
Going in to the final bend Gao muscled his way through to snatch victory on the day by the thickness of a vest but the overall proze belonged to the Australian.
Shange finished third with Chocho having his best walk of the week to take fourth in a sprint ahead of Linke and Dunfee.
Order of arrival:
1st Gao Wenkui (CHN): 41:03
2nd Dane Bird-Smith (AUS): 41:03
3rd Lebogang Shange (RSA): 41:07
4th Andres Chocho (ECU): 41:12
5th Christopher Linke (GER): 41:12
6th Evan Dunfee (CAN): 41:14
7th Aliaksandr Liakhovich (UKR): 41:16
8th Caio Bonfim (BRA): 41:21
The podium of fourth station: Dongshan
Final individual men professional race
With the new record of the event on this course wins Dane Bird-Smith who had also won in 2016 with the time of 3:37:59
Personal records for Shane Lebogang (RSA), Gao Wenkui (CHN) and Caio Bonfim (BRA) who last year had registered the performaces of 3:34:00, 3:35:28 and 3:35:44 respectively.
In the first eight personal best on this course also for Andres Chocho (ECU) (2016: 3:41:53) and Evan Dunfee (CAN) (2016: 3:38:43).
In the previous editions, on longer courses (2013) and totally different and shorter (2014 and 2015), the following winners were recorded:
- First Edition 2013: Yu Wei in 4:31:57
- Second Edition 2014: Chen Ding (CHN) in 3:18:07
- Third Edition 2015: Wang Zhen (CHN) in 3:16:58
1st Dane Bird-Smith (AUS): 3:27:30
2nd Shange Lebogang (RSA): 3:28:15
3rd Caio Bomfim (BRA): 3:29:36
4th Gao Wenkui (CHN): 3:31:04
5th Chrisatopher Linke (GER): 3:31:12
6th Andres Chocho (ECU): 3:31:14
7th Evan Dunfee (CAN): 3:31:19
8th Wayne Snyman (RSA): 3:34:12
Final individual men podium (photo by Lorenzo Dessì - ITA)
Final team men standing
1° Latin Power (Caio Bonfim, Andres Chocho, Isaac Palma, Ever Palma, Lebogang Shange): 10:29:05
2° Beef Extreme (Dane Bird-Smith, Christopher Linke, Perseus Karlstrom, Tom Bosworth): 10:32:03
3° China (Yang Hu, Zhang Jun, Zhu Guowen, Jin Xianqian, Song Huazhang): 10:48:03
4° Boy in Green (Brendan Boyce, Alex Wright, Damian Blocki, Wayne Seaman): 10:52:12
5° J.T. Salute (Rafal Augustyn, Evan Dunfee, Quentin Rew): 10:52:49
6° NB Ukraine (Ivan Banzeruk, Ruslan Dmytrenko, Ivan Losev): 10:54:25
7° MON-CHN (Gao Wenkui, Xu Faguang, Li Liangyong, Wu Qianlong, Zhang Mingkai): 10:55:03
8° INTER M1 (Yuheniy Zaleski, Dzmitry Dziubin, Oleksiy Kazanin): 10:57.14
Final men team podium (photo by Lorenzo Dessì - ITA)
Women professional race
Antonella Palmisano will probably remember the words of a famous song whose advertising has being all the race now in Italy:
"Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly
and the dreams you dreamed of dreaming come true"
Her dream has become reality today.
Run off on the hills of Dongshan Qieyang Shenijie (CHN) who had already made a good performance last year (43:54), but Chinese this year is still improving.
The performance of 43:31, today is her third consecutive victory here in the district of Wuzhong.
Obviously, the interruption of pregnancy and the disease that caused her, has been fully recovered and will come back to the big world in the coming year.
For a while Nie Jingjing (CHN) she tried to chase Qieyang, but was immediately clear that the Tibetan athlete (who had been in Saluzzo, Italy for two seasons) today wanted to reconfirm the 2016 victory.
The most interesting fight, however, was between Antonella Palmisano (ITA) and Erica de Sena (BRA) who fight over the final victory. Since Dongshan's departure was only 17" separating the two.
She prevailed the Italian of another 58". Probably the Brazilian also thought about the team result coming with the two team-mates, but in turn also overtaken by Nie Jingjin (CHN) which takes from Antonella Palmisano 42".
In the middle between Antonella Palmisano and Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL), fourth place to Nadia Borovska (UKR).
Despite the climbs, the race was very fast and besides Qieyang Shenijie obtained the personal best (three top eight athletes) on this course also:
- Nie Jingjin (CHN) (in 2016: 45:34)
- Nadia Borovska (UKR) (in 2016: 45:29)
- Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL) (in 2016: 47:19)
- Inna Kashyna (UKR) (in 2016: 45:57) who celebrated in best way the 26th birthday.
Order of arrival
1st Qieyang Shenijie (CHN): 43:31
2nd Nie Jingjing (CHN): 43:44
3rd Antonella Palmisano (ITA): 44:07
4th Nadia Borovska (UKR): 44:52
5th Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL) 45:04
6th Kimberly Garcia (PER): 45:05
7th Erica de Sena (BRA): 45:05
8th Inna Kashyna (UKR): 45:05
Chasing group (de Sena, Borovska, Arenas, Garcia) (photo by Jean Piere Dahm - FRA)
Final women professional race individual
With the new record of the event on the route wins Antonella Palmisano.
Last year the win went to Qieyang Shenijie (CHN) with the time of 3:49.23.
Personal records on these courses also for Nie Jingjing (CHN) and Erica de Sena who last year had registered the performaces of 3:50:37 and 3:53:01 respectively.
This year the athletes competed very strong despite the harsh weather conditions.
In the previous editions, on longer courses (2013) and totally different and shorter (2014 and 2015), the following winners were recorded:
- First Edition 2013: Liu Hong in 5:01:37
- Second Edition 2014: Lyudmyla Olyanovska in 3:38:25
- Third Edition 2015: Lyudmyla Olyanovska in 3:26:02
1.- Antonella Palmisano (ITA): 3:44:45
2.- Nie Jingjing (CHN): 3:45:27
3.- Erica De Sena (BRA): 3:46:00
4.- Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL): 3:47:47
5.- Nadia Borovska (UKR): 3:48:42
6.- Kimberly Garcia (PER): 3:51:31
7.- Julia Takacs (ESP): 3:52:18
8.- Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene (LTU): 3:53:28
Final individual women podium (photo by Lorenzo Dessì - ITA)
Final team standing
What seemed impossible, after the first day in the 20km and was materialized yesterday, today it was confirmed in Dongshan.
With a collective performance that knows how incredible, Erica de Sena, Sandra Lorena Arenas and Kimberly Garcia, third, fourth and sixth, respectively, won the edition 2017 of Around Taihu and take home the $ 20,000 prize.
The great performance of Antonella Palmisano was not enough for the Heroes who finish in second place, also as consquence of Viktoria Madarasz (HUN)'s unexpected negative day.
1st Latinas (Erica de Sena, Sandra Lorena Arenas, Kimberly Garcia): 11:25:18
2nd Heroes (Antonella Palmisano, Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene, Viktoria Madarasz): 11:31:51
3rd INTER F3 (Nadia Borovska, Inna Kashyna, Ainhoa Pinedo, Julia Takacs): 11:32:23
4th China (Qieyang Shenijie, Nie Jingjing, Xie Lijuan, Mao Yanxue): 11:38:52
5th UBA (Beki Smith, Claire Tallent, Hanna Drabenia, Tamara Havryliuk): 12:14:02
6th Kiwi Columbians (Sandra Galvis, Yeseida Carrillo, Alana Barber): 12:24:32
7th JGX-CHN (Jiang Qianqian, Chen Yumin, Xu Jiangqi, Zhong Yuan, Zhou Tao): 12:52:09
8th No stress (Yehualeye Beletew, Elianay Santana, Cisiane Dutra Lopes, Katie Burnett): 13:01:28
Marcia dal Mondo thanks again to the friends who have co-operated today and will co-operate in the coming days in the drafting of these notes:
- Frederic Bianchi (SUI)
- Jean Pierre Dahm (FRA)
- Lorenzo Dessì (ITA)
- Shen Xinsheng (CHN)
- Steven Taylor (GBR)
- Yang Zhongmin (CHN)
Team overall podium women (Photo by Lorenzo Dessì - ITA)
Heroes women team (Photo by Lorenzo Dessì - ITA)