A crackling month end for the 50km race walk that of January 2019.
The first news that has shaken the world panorama of race walk was once again that perhaps in a tomorrow not so far (the years pass unfortunately too quickly not to notice) the historic race introduced in 1932 could be replaced with an event no more than two and a half hours for television-type needs in the Olympic Games.
But we do not want to deal with this.
Instead, let's take a cue from the one that between Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 of January is happening in Italy about 1,500 km away between two small towns: San Lorenzo al Mare and Gioiosa Marea.
San Lorenzo al Mare is for almost a decade the "winter retreat" of the training of about ten athletes of the national team of China, while Gioiosa Marea (the city that gave birth to the unforgettable Anna Rita Sidoti) hosted this year the Italian Championship of 50km in her memory.
Well this weekend near Sanremo, on a beautiful bicycle lane, and under the Etna, two interesting tests have been carried out on the distance of 35km.
Gioiosa Marea in a certified race to all effects and that of San Lorenzo al Mare in a test of the end of the training period. This last result certainly will not appear in any ranking or list, but knowing the meticulousness of the Chinese team coach, there we feel like betting the classic seafood dinner with anyone interested on.
In particular we are focoused in women’s event with an eye to the immediate future of female 50km.
We start from San Lorenzo al Mare, where we witnessed a race-test of Qieyang Shenijie, known to everyone in the world of race walking as "the Tibetan" who laid the foundations for a new world record of women over the longest distance: just the one we wants to cancel or change!
The girl closed the 35 km in the time of 2:45:15.
These are the impressive passage times in their regularity:
- 5km: 24:09
- 10km: 48:01 (23:52)
- 15km: 1:11:45 (23:44)
- 20km: 1:35:37 (23:53)
- 25km: 1:59:11 (23:34)
- 30km: 2:22:44 (23:33)
- 35km: 2:45:15 (22:31 - last 3 km in 13:04)
Interesting for insiders to know the lactate index taken at 25km (1.4 mmol), at 30km (1.4 mmol) and at the end of the test (3.2 mmol).
She echoed in Gioiosa Marea, with equally astonishment also because she got the result in an official race, Eleonora Anna Giorgi.
Unfortunately we do not have time comparisons every 5km, but only those every 10km.
At 10km the Giorgi passes in 47:50 and in the distance comparison with Qieyang (48:01) is in front of her for 11".
At 20km covered in 1:35:17 (with 10km seconds in 47:47) the Italian is still ahead of the Chinese of 20".
For both there are the mini-stops at 25km for the control of the lactate (one only for Giorgi and two for the Qieyang that has a mini stop even at 30km).
At 30km the Italian is still in the lead in 2:22:20 (third 10km in 47:03), while the Chinese transits with 24" of delay in 2:22:44.
It is the last 5km that makes the difference.
“The Tibetan" is able to close the last 5km in 22:31 while the Italian must be satisfied with a time of 23:01.
So Qieyang recovers the 30" that lead to the final mark 3:45:15 compared to 3:45:21 of Giorgi.
A single word is enough to define this hypothetical distance comparison: exciting!
Anyone who understands something of race walk has no difficulty to realize that the road to get to see in 2019 a world record of women under 4 hours is now very much downhill.
In our opinion, both athletes can, in optimal conditions, close a 50km between 3:57:30 and 3:59:00.
What if we wake up one day at the beginning of March, when Chinese will race in Huangshan, with a new world record for women on 50km?
Maybe it will be our only dream, but why not dream because it costs nothing?
Who writes would also like to dream that the 50km remained in 2024 and over an Olympic specialty.
Who knows?