31/03/2019   Interview with Eleonora Dominici's coaches






With the victory and the splendid result obtained in Cassino (ITA) on March 24, 2019 Eleonora Dominici became the ninth Italian athlete "all time" on the distance (in terms of performances her is the 24th all time ).

 
Marcia dal Mondo wanted to hear from the coaches of the athlete the reasons behind this success that for a long time seemed very far and difficult to be achieved.

 

 


 

 

Marcia dal Mondo: Eleonora Dominici's performance in Cassino is almost a prodigious progress achieved as a response to the disqualification in San Giorgio of Gioiosa Marea that many had judged undeserved (we recall that it was the fruit of three local red cards, while the international jury had not detected any problem), and most importantly imposed after arrival.

 
Alba Milana and Mario de Benedictis: Undoubtedly Eleonora Dominici's performance in Cassino on March 24th, her time of 1:30:35 on 20 km at the Italian Championships and, above all, the way in which the race was conducted, they have caused a sesation within the Italian race walk environment and, if we wish, also European.
A happy news for professionals. A success (almost) announced for those who follow her more closely.
The disqualification of Gioiosa Marea had left a sign of impatience more in the Team managers than in the girl.
But the subsequent Absolute Indoor Championships and even more the Cassino race (with an international jury) reported in the girl and, we also hope in the Team managers, that smile she had lost.
 
 
 
Marcia dal Mondo: At the end of 2016 Eleonora Dominici had a personal best of 1:38:22 always obtained in Cassino, however, on a course that had left some doubts, but in a season sparkling with three disqualifications. In 2017 the season started again in Italy with a disqualification in Grosseto, but then in La Coruna she got the personal best with 1:35:41 and the jury's compliments.
How did you react as coaches?
 
 
 
Alba Milana and Mario de Benedictis: The 1:30:35 of this year goes to improve the previous personal best of Eleonora (1:33:32), obtained at the U23 European Championships in Bydgoszcz, in the July of 2017 which in its time had sent the personal best of La Coruna to the attic.
It is interesting to see the qualitative leap obtained at the U23 European Championships in Bydgoszcz in 2017, made possible by a very convincing test in La Coruña the month before.
And in the XXXI Cantones de La Coruña Grand Prix, Eleonora btained the standard for the U23 European Championships. That race was really providential.
In our opinion, the La Coruna race was the turning point in which we understood that we had to make she compete more abroad so that she could become familiar with the international juries and, above all with the athletes with whom she would have had to face in the future if she had wanted to to grow up.
 
Then having almost repeated the previous personal best (1:33:32) last year on the occasion of the Italian Championships in Rome (1:33:33), on March 4th and, ultimately, replicated in Taicang (1:33:40) on the occasion of the Team World Championships in May, again in 2018, in both races with international juries, she gave us the confirmation that the way taken was the right one for the good of the girl.
 
At Cassino Eleonora, as agreed, he kept a prudent initial pace of around 4:36/km. The temperature in the race has risen by 8°C, from 20°C at the start to 28°C in the last kilometers. The course really presented a few meters in the shadow.
The second part of the race, after passing halfway through 45:57, was covered in 44:38, by far his personal best on the distance of 10 km.
 
 
 
 
Marcia dal Mondo: some numbers on her 20km
 
 
Alba Milana and Mario de Benedictis: The graph of Eleonora's chrono performance on the 20km is, in our opinion, very interesting:
 
 

 

 
 
In her young career the athlete completed the 20km only 9 times (10 if we consider the race of 27 January in San Giorgio di Gioiosa Marea, ME vhen she was DQ'ed after the arrival).
The first qualitative leap was that of Bydgoszcz of which we have already said.
The 2018 however did not bring the results we hoped for. The aforementioned graphic highlights it perfectly. It reads almost a slackening in performances.
However, the graph does not say what was the cause of that sort of pause in the athlete's growth. In fact, in the diagram we cannot read about the ugly mononucleosis contracted by Eleonora around the middle of April 2018 (in Taicang in the World Team Championships) she already had the symptoms of the virus), a disease that forced her to stop for about three months.
Net of mononucleosis, Eleonora could have walked the 20km on the 1:31:30 pace already in the World Team Championships in Taicang.
 
 
 
 
Marcia dal Mondo: if you had the magic wand how would you use it?
 
 
Alba Milana and Mario de Benedictis: Eleonora Dominici, in her sporting career at a young age, has proven to be an athlete with good international potential (see Eskilstuna 2015, European Athletics Junior Championships: 46:21.49 on 10km, 9th classified). Often, however, in Italy valuable results were followed by counter-performances linked above all to disqualifications by national judges.
 
In our humble opinion something had to be changed in the technical gesture, but not because we considered it unfair. We had to work deeply on the technique to modify an action that was suitable for those speeds that are typical of the international level.
We saw for her, in an adult perspective, the possibility of achieving high-level performance over the distance of 20km.
Eleonora already as a young girl had an iron will and a capacity to mentally bear the workloads and react constructively to failures; mental qualities that few adults have and that can make the difference between a good athlete and a champion.
 
Given that there are no magic wands, our wand was used in the following manner.
 
The focus was therefore on two fundamental technical aspects: maximizing the efficiency of reactive feet that are capable of rolling fast and moving along ground; maximize joint mobility of the pelvis.
We therefore immediately began an analytical and constant work of classical technical exercises ("nihil sub sole novum", said the Latins) that in three years we believe have given important fruits in the desired direction.
 
The technical exercises, as we understand them, must accompany the walker throughout her career. It is a work that from analytical is then integrated, transferred, synthesized in conditional training sessions. But often many walkers abandon this necessary practice as adults, to devote themselves almost exclusively to training sessions almost attributable to middle distance races, with the result of obtaining important speeds and frequent disqualifications.
 
Obviously in Eleonora's programming the volumes of work have also grown, but all this has happened gradually, in the last three years. Increasing and qualitatively significant work volumes; in the last month before the Cassino race the athlete marched in training two 20 km at the rate of 4:48-4:45/km with extreme ease, and also slow-bottom sessions of 25km, easily walked to the rhythm of 12km/h.