An international 50km race walk was held yesterday in Vienna (AUT), also valid for the title of the Polish Champion on the 50km road walk.
Nine Nations athletes took part in the race on a 2km course (1km go & back) on the central Prater avenue.
50km men
Only eight athletes at the start : 4 athletes from Poland, 3 athletes from Austria and one from Great Britain.
The jury judge very strongly as three athletes were disqualified and one DNF.
The most famous victim was certainly Rafal Sikora (POL), who was disqualified at 36km at the same time with his compatriot Rafal Fedaczynski (POL), which was followed by a number of controversies.
The weather conditions were good the first part of the race, while after two hours a very annoying wind has risen, which has affected the race a lot.
This caused a noticeable drop in the quality of the race, with the surprising winner Jakub Jelonek (POL) with a time of 4:08:27, in front of Grzegorz Grinholc (POL) in 4:54:45.
In third place the first of the home athletes, Dietmar Hirschmugl (AUT) in 5:48:16
20km women
Unfortunately, even in the women's 20km there was the disqualification of the favorite Monika Kapera (POL), judged by all those present as an example of style, but evidently for local judges, not so accustomed to international competitions, so it was not.
At this point the winner became the team-mate Antonina Lorek (POL) in 1:48:30, in front of the surprising young (year of birth 2000) athlete from Koper, Eva Čanadi (SLO), who with a time of 1:54:23 at the his first experience on this distance has also become the first ever Slovenian to have walked and finished a 20km.
Third place for Brigitte Orsolits (AUT) in 2:14:18.
The Slovenian athletes, all coached by Fabio Ruzzier have also asserted themselves in the 5km, where he has excelled the U16 boy Jaka Grabner (SLO) in the time of 26:02.4 struggling his personal best of 28:09, obtained in Trieste just three weeks ago and among the females the U16 girl Karin Avsenek (SLO) with the personal best of 29:34.3 (previous of 29:46.5).