On August 14th, is expected a full day of race walking in Qujing in the Province of Yunnan in China.
Qujing is a city in the South-West of China situated at an altitude of 1.853m with a population of over six million inhabitants of which over 1,5 million live in the metropolitan area.
The city has an industrial and commercial vocation, but it is not far from the famous imaginary area of the Shangri-La described by the writer James Hilton in his novel "Horizon lost".
Very interesting are the natural attractions of the waterfalls and the Jiulong Lake and the Tiansheng Caves.
On Saturday, Qujing will host the fourth stage of the China Grand Prix, which is usually reserved for an altitude race.
The schedule is concentrated in one day and is very intense.
At 8:30 with simultaneous departure 85 athletes will present themselves at the start:
- 42 will be the men who will compete in the 20km
- 36 will be the women who will compete in the 20km
- finally 7 will be the U20 men who will compete in the 30km
In the afternoon with simultaneous departure at 15:00, 53 athletes (U20 and U18) will present themselves at the start:
- 14 will be the U18 girls who will compete on 5km
- 22 will be the U18 boyss who will compete on 10km
- 4 will be the U20 women who will compete on 10km
- 13 will be the U20 men who will compete on 10km
The circuit will be 1km (500m go & back) and will run on a wide avenue in the area of the Culture and Sports Park of Qujing.
Qujing is a city that has given names of very famous athletes in the China race walking world.
We remember only in the men Li Zeweng and Li Jianbo athletes of the past, while in the present stands the name of Cai Zelin, silver at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
In the Federal Center of Qujing, Liu Hong is also training at this time but she will not take part in the race having finalized the season to Doha.
The world record holder of both the 20km and the 50km almost certainly in Doha will participate only on the 20km. In its place, Liang Rui will probably be called, who was the 50km world record holder until the splendid time of Liu Hong.
As for the athletes who will participate in the Grand Prix we immediately say that all those who have been selected for the Doha World Championships are entered, but that they should probably only complete a test on the 10km in altitude.
Among the other second-tier athletes, the biggest candidate for victory should be Jin Xinquian (CHN) who has already walked around 1:19:30.