The Colombian Eider Arevalo and the Chinese Qieyang Shenjie win the respective 20km of the Spanish leg of the IAAF Challenge respectively in 1:19:14 and in 1:26:28.
20km women
The race of women is the first to start.
Qieyang Shenjie was the favorite on the eve and there was supposed a battle for the other podium positions between Erca de Sena (BRA) and Lu Xiuzhi (CHN) both unfortunately did not at the start. In fact, the Brazilian did not show up in La Coruna, while the Rio 2016 bronze medal the day before the start was hospitalized in Saluzzo where she trains.
The flight almost also cost the possible absence from the race of Qieyang Shenie and her younger team-mate Ma Zhenxia caused by the strong air conditioning in the flight between Barcelona and La Coruna who had also suffered a delay due to a queue on the track for the usual reasons for air traffic.
So much so that on Friday morning in the hall of the Hotel that hosted the athletes, nervously hovered the coach of the two athletes looking for something that soothed the sore throat that they had with the hope that it would not rise even the body temperature.
In addition, the classic surprise doping control of the IAAF, very well accepted by the athletes and we also imagine by the other athletes who have been subjected to it.
In short, between absence, consequences of air conditioning and other ingredients to see a fairly undecided race there were all, and the main opponent of the Tibetan became right Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL) that last March 23, 2018 in Dudince had made a race masterful race won with an interesting time of 1:28:48.
Starting on the foot of 4:30/km, but since the second and third lap (4:19 and 4:16) Qieyang Shenjie and Sandra Lorena Arenas take a good margin of advantage over four other athletes: Julia Takacs (ESP), Ana Cabecinha (POR), Raquel Gonzalez (ESP) and Maria Perez (ESP).
Shortly behind Lidia Sanchez Puebla (ESP) U23 with beautiful hopes, and Ma Zhenxia (CHN) (1998), who only planned a test on 15km as a consequence of the above.
Around 4km the Chinese force the pace and goes to 5km in 21:36.
Sandra Lorena Arenas comes off and goes in 21:52 among other things also due to two red cards against her.
From now on, the Qieyang Shenjie (CHN) race will become a beautiful monologue that will remotely remember that of Liu Hong in 2015.
The Tibetan looks like a Swiss chrono (or, if you like, a Japanese "Shinkansen" train) that pass to:
- 10km in 43:10 (21:34)
- 15km in 1:04:46 (21:36)
and the detacs make huge.
Sandra Lorena Arenas after the third red card due to loss of contact enter in the Penalty Area where she remains for 120". She will exit but will decide to abandon immediately after the passage to 9km.
At 10km the most immediate chasers are Julia Takacs (44:11), Maria Perez (44:14) and Ana Cabecinha (44:29). They are followed by Raquel Gonzalez and Ines Henriques and more behind Lidia Sanchez Puebla and Ma Zhenxia in 45:11.
In the last 5km the coach of Qieyang Shenjie (Sandro Damilano) is heard shouting for a result under 1:26:20 that would allow her to oust Yelena Lashmanova (RUS) from the first place of the Season List 2018. The last laps are a Rossinian crescendo (4:19, 4:19, 4:23, 4:25 and 4:16).
End with a great time: 1:26:28.
Excluding the time of Yelena Lashmanova (RUS) who can not compete outside Russia (1:26:23) Qieyang Shenjie is currently the best result of the year.
Second place for a brilliant Julia Takacs (ESP) in 1:27:58.
This performance places her in third place among the Spanish walkers of all time, behind Maria Vasco (1:27:25) and Beatriz Pascual (1:27:44).
Third place for Ana Cabecinha (POR) in 1:29:41
They follow: Raquel Gonzalez (ESP) in 1:30:15, Ines Henriques (POR) in 1:30:34, Lidia Sanchez-Puebla (ESP) in 1:31:21. Maria Perez (just before the 15km) and Ma Zhenxia immediately after the passage to 15km DNF.
Below the updated list of first 10 athletes.
20km men
A race totally different from that of women, much more spectacular and attractive.
Immediately on times of just over 4:00 the three most totolati Japanese in the race: Tomohiro Noda, Masatora Kawano and Fumitaka Oikawa.
Lose contact on the first lap Eider Arevalo (COL), but falls with the leaders to the 3km with a passage to the third lap of 3:57.
At 5km (20:06-20:07) there are ten: 3 Japanese, 3 Spanish, 2 Colombians, 1 Chinese and 1 Mexican.
Immediately after the pace increases (3:58, 3:59) on the push of the Japanese before and after Alvaro Martin who earns about ten meters. The other Spaniard Diego Garcia immediately goes to catch for his spanish opponent and reaches him at 10km.
The two pass in 39:57 with Alvaro Martin in the lead.
Less than 10" after: Akihiro Noda (40:04), Eider Arevalo, Masatora Kawano, Jin Xiangqian, Miguel Angel Lopez, Fumitaka Oikawa, Esteban Soto (40:05) and Noel Ali Chama (40:06).
They continue to alternate and jerks control, but at 15km there are still eight (59:57-59:59). Only Miguel Angel Lopez lost ground (1:00:17).
Between 16km and 17km Jin Xiangqian (CHN) tries to play his cards and places a lap in 3:42.
Eider Arevalo, Alvaro Martin and Diego Garcia resist it with a subsequent lap of 3:50 while the Chinese goes off in 4:09. But the two Japanese Akihiro Noda and Masatora Kawano are just a few seconds away.
The penultimate lap are gone Eider Arevalo and Diego Garcia (3:51), crashed Alvaro Martin who is overtaken by the Chinese Jin Xiangqian. But the two Japanese are still ahead of him twenty seconds from the lead. The local public is supporting Diego Garcia, but also Eider Arevalo has some fans because he is training in Pontevedra in Galicia. Who knows who will win?
They are still together after 19,5km.
The last 500m remember the action of Eider Arevalo in London 2017: a show in the show. He wins in 1:19:14.
Second place to Diego Garcia in 1:19:18 new personal best (previous of 1:20:34 established in London on Aug. 13, 2017).
But what is more important for the Spanish is that he broken the historic U23 record of Spain by Valenti Massana (1:19:25) set 26 years ago in the same edition of Cantones de La Coruna when he came second behind Maurizio Damilano (1:18:54).
Also for him this performance places him in third place among the Spanish walkers of all time, behind Francisco Fernandez and Miguel Angel Lopez.
Third place to Tomohiro Noda (JPN) in 1:19:49 new personal best (previous of 1:20:04 established in Nomi, JPNon March 19, 2017)
Followed by Masatora Kawano (JPN) in 1:20:11, Jin Xiangqian in 1:20:24 and Alvaro Martin (1:20:46).
Below the updated list of first 10 athletes.
Full results in the section Results or directly download from this link: click here
Full photo album by Manuel Fuentes (Manataphy Fotografia) - La Coruna: click here
(from IAAF web-site by Emeterio Valiente)
Colombia’s world champion Eider Arévalo and China Qieyang Shenjie captured respective 20km victories in 1:19:14 and 1:26:28 at the ‘32nd Gran Premio Cantones de Marcha’, the Spanish leg in the 2018 IAAF Race Walking Challenge, on Saturday (2).
On a cloudy afternoon that was ideal for endurance events, with the thermometer reading about 15°C during the races, they succeeded in very different ways.
While the 25-year-old Arévalo got the better of Spain’s Diego García by just four seconds, the Chinese walker was an overwhelming victor as she built a massive 1:30 advantage over her closest pursuer, Spain’s Julia Takacs, who managed a massive PB of 1:27:58.
Arevalo show impressive form, Garcia surprises
The men’s competition kicked off at a steady pace of around four minutes per kilometre and by the five kilometre checkpoint, which was reached in 20:08, still ten athletes remained in the leading group with Álvaro Martín making most of the pacing duties. The Spaniard pushed hard and progressively injected a brisker speed as he crossed the halfway point in 39:57 with only the company of his compatriot Diego García, the current European U-23 champion, while the chasing group, comprising Arévalo, Spain’s Miguel Ángel López, the Japanese duo of Akihiro Noda and Masatora Kawano and China’s Jin Xiangqian among others, travelled eight seconds in arrears (40:05).
However, the lead of the Spanish tandem was going to be short-lived as they were caught two kilometres later. The first major casualty in the top group was the 2015 world champion López as he began to lose ground with the clock reading 52 minutes. After several hesitant splits – the 16th kilometre was covered in a slow 4:10 – it was Xiangqian who unleashed a powerful change of speed to cover the 17th circuit in a frantic 3:42 to open a three-second gap over García and Arévalo, the only athletes responding to his furious attack.
While the Chinese was finally a victim of his own tactics as he struggled on the final stages, García and Arévalo startled the crowd with a fascinating clash over the closing three kilometres. The Spaniard remained at front throughout while Arévalo seemed to walk effortlessly waiting to make his move at the right moment, which came some 350m to go when the 25-year-old Colombian easily overtook García to join the illustrious list of winners in La Coruña.
At the tape, Arévalo was clocked in a massive SB of 1:19:14, his second fastest ever time only bettered by the National record of 1:18:53 he set to win the London worlds last summer.
The delighted victor said, “I needed such a good result like today after my below-par performance in Taicang. I knew I was in great shape and fortunately the weather was ideal, the rivals were of the highest calibre and all those things have led me to this brilliant win today.”
Asked on his preference for the nearby city of Pontevedra to prepare his last competitions, the Colombian ace confirmed, “There, my Colombian mates and me are like at home, people take care of us, they are so kind, there are good circuits to train, everything is fantastic in Pontevedra” concluded Arévalo, who must keep sweet memories from Spain as he became world junior 10,000m champion in Barcelona 2012.
As for García, the still 22-year-old surprise runner-up was over the moon as he destroyed his lifetime best for no less than 1:16 to set a new Spanish under 23 record which belonged to the former (1993) world 20km champion Valentín Massana. “Over the last laps my main target was to break the Spanish record (1:19:25), that’s the reason I pushed hard. Arévalo is the world champion and he would have likely beaten me anyway so I can’t be more happy. I hope to be in the fight for the medals at the Europeans in Berlin.”
Japan's Akihiro Noda completed the podium with a 1:19:49 lifetime best.
Shenjie in a class of her own
The women’s event produced no surprises as the pre-race favourite Shenjie proved to be head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the line-up. From the gun the 27-year-old London Olympics silver medallist easily broke away from the others with tremendous ease and her win became clear already in the early stages.
Shenjie went through the opening 5000m in 21:36 to build a massive 46-second advantage on the chasing pack which was formed by the Spanish duo of the 2011 European U-23 silver medallist Takacs and Raquel González plus the Portuguese tandem of Ana Cabecinha and the world 50km champion Ines Henriques.
Like a Swiss clock, Shenjie walked at a slightly under 4:20 per kilometre pace to clock 43:10 at halfway. By then, Takacs had managed to get rid of her chasing group mates and travelled alone in second, but no less than 1:01 behind the Chinese but 18 seconds clear of Cabecinha, while Henriques and González walked together another 24 seconds adrift.
There were no remarkable changes over the second half of the 20-lap event with Shenjie gradually strengthening her leadership, Takacs comfortably in second and Cabecinha a distant third.
At the finish line the winner achieved a season’s best of 1:26:28 in her fourth outing this year and the 28-year-old Takacs, who was born in Hungary but moved to Spain at the age of 13, secured the second spot in a lifetime best of 1:27:58. Cabecinha was third in 1:29:41.
The clear winner expressed her satisfaction for her win after the two runner-up places she recorded in 2015 and 2016 behind her compatriot Liu Hong on both occasions.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF