The National 20km Championships of Poland took place on the same date as Dudince 50 along Paderewskiego Street in Sulejówek (POL).
20km women
For many kilometers, Katarzyna Zdziebło (POL) walked together with Olga Niedzialek (POL).
Later, the leader has definitely forced the pace and left behind her rival.
There were rumors that she could have attacked Poland's 1:28:58 record, but in the end she continued a little slower. She has a sure advantage of several seconds over her rival. Katarzyna Zdziebło, finally finished with a time of 1:30:11 and defended the Polish title over the distance of 20km.
Less than half a minute later, Olga Niedziałek reached the finish line of the Sulejów school complex. The result of 1:30:34 gave the silver medal the right to start the world championships in July and the Europeans in August. It is also the sixth best result in the history of Polish athletics.
The bronze medal then went to Agnieszka Ellward in 1:37:08.
20km men
In the men's competition, the tone for the race was initially set by Rafał Augustyn, who led a group of several competitors, including Tokyo Olympic champion Dawid Tomala.
The males walked for a long time as in a close-knit team.
Only in the second part of the race after the 11km that Dawid Tomala and Artur Brzozowski broke away from the group.
Brzozowski is maintaining the leadership in the following laps, literally marching one step ahead of Tomala.
The last kilometer is what decided the race.
Dawid Tomala, for whom Sulejówek's performance was the first race since he won the Olympic 50km competition in Sapporo, definitely accelerated and passed his rival by a few seconds. He won with a time of 1:25:16.
Second at the finish Artur Brzozowski finished in 1:25:27.
Rafał Augustyn won the bronze medal in 1:25:52.
The Sulejówek competition was included in the World Athletics Race Walking Tour series. Numerous side races were also held on the occasion of the 20km championship.
The event attracted a large number of athletes to Sulejówek: the opening ceremony of the competition was attended, as noted by Arkadiusz Śliwa, mayor of the city, three competitors who have won a total of seven Olympic gold medals (Tomasz Majewski, Dawid Tomala, Robert Korzeniowski).