Eder Sanchez takes the 20km victory at the 2009 Chihuahua Race Walking Challenge event (© Alex Aguirre)
MonteCarloWinners of the 2009 IAAF Race Walking Challenge Edez Sanchez of Mexico and Kjersti Platzer proved that experience counts when it matters as both veterans of race walking they prevailed over the younger challengers in the season-long challenge.
It pays to keep going if you race walk – ask Eder Sanchez.
It may seem the most blindingly obvious advice to athletes, but the Mexican champion would be the first to agree after he surmounted swine flu, a so-so collection of OK but unspectacular results, and other disappointments before finally sitting top of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge for 2009.
Sanchez gets to pocket the top-dollar $30,000 cheque for his efforts – and the knowledge that come next year when the IAAF World Walking Cup fetches up in his backyard at Chihuahua in May, he’ll probably be in pole position to make his bank manager smile there too.
From a different point of view, it also nudges his country back into walking’s limelight after a lean time of it for most of the decade.
More than 40 years ago Polish coach Jerzy Hausleber was hired to make sure Mexico City had at least one athletic medal to show for their pains in putting on the 1968 Olympics.
It all came good when Jose Pedraza staged a last-minute charge to come within a second of winning gold. And so up to 2000 it was a case of think walking – think Mexico.
But Bernardo Segura’s controversial DQ inside the Olympic stadium in Sydney heralded a lean time of it internationally for the country until Sanchez’s coming of age in 2009.
He finished third in last year’s Challenge having led the standings until the last couple of months of the season.
But an average Olympics and a DNF in the final race at Murcia saw both Jared Tallent and the retiring Jefferson Perez nip ahead of him in the shake-up.
This time, the improved Sanchez held his form to make sure there would be no second slip.
He opened his campaign in March with a repeat victory in Chihuahua half-a-minute quicker than his victory there 12 months ago.
But the key race proved to be his next tussle in China, at Wuxi to be precise, on April 18.
Sanchez’s battle-royale with Olympic champion Valeriy Borchin may have seen the Mexican lose out by five seconds as he shot through the line in 1:19:36 – but it relegated Hao Wang to fourth.
Come the final tally in September, the Chinese finished just two points down on Sanchez - 44 to 42 - but the 10 points he gained to Wang’s seven in Wuxi proved crucial.
An eight-pointer at La Coruna in June, finishing third to another Wang fourth, and then a reversal when the Chinese took silver and a PB to Sanchez’s bronze in the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, set up the showdown in Saransk for the finale on September 19.
The Mexican’s 38:31 over 10km to Wang’s 39:03 in Russia rubber-stamped a fine series.
“It gives me special joy to be able to re-establish Mexican walkers as among the best internationally,” Sanchez said. “People have noticed I have been climbing up the ladder of international race walking.
“In all my races this year, I finished in the top three and the judges have noticed my technique is good. Only in China I was given a yellow card, in Russia I finished with a clean board.”
Australian Luke Adams returned to the Challenge podium for third place having won the 2007 series. And despite drawing a blank in the previous two Challenges, China scored a hat-trick of appearances in the top seven when Yafei Chu finished fourth and countryman Faguang Xu came seventh.
But will there be a better ambassador of the Challenge than Kjersti Platzer?
The Norwegian competed in the inaugural 2003 series where she finished second, added another runner’s-up spot in 2007, and won the women’s event for the last two years before announcing her retirement in Saransk.
By the way, if you’re counting, that’s also a pretty hard slap in the face to the sceptics who claim you can’t get rich from a cinderella sport.
The 37-year-old’s earnings made it into six figures long before she got to the end of the road in the eastern Russian city.
Prepared to globetrot with brother Eric and husband Stephan, she had notched up four firsts by the Krakow edition on May 31 – and was already out of sight of the chasers.
Having defended her title in Chihuahua, she broke the tape at the Sesto San Giovanni and Rio Maior races, but came second to Sabine Zimmer-Krantz, who incidentally tied the knot down a coalmine in February, and then dug out a win in La Coruna by 30 seconds over Platzer.
That was still enough to create a path for the amiable and multi-lingual Norwegian to the top of the podium, and one, who’s enhanced more than a few Challenge press conferences over the years as well.
She said: “After Berlin and the World Championships, I had a lot of pain and it made it hard to train mentally. But two weeks before Saransk – the pain went.
“I didn’t think about it as my last race until afterwards. But two steps after the finish line I let out a big sigh of relief. Come the spring and competitions starting, I know a part of me would like to go out and race.”
But if the winner was clear from a long way out, the race for second came down to the wire.
In fact, had Elisa Rigaudo held off just a little as the Italian forged a five-second gap in the series final in Saransk – she might have been the one picking up the $20,000 cheque for runner-up.
As it turned out, Olive Loughnane drew level a little after 2km, and as the 10km race see-sawed between the two, a last kilometre sprint from the Irishwoman was worth an extra $6,000 to her.
Loughnane hinted at a decent year back in February. But she exceeded all expectations when she charged through the Brandenburg Gate to take silver at the World Championships in Berlin – and her Challenge success was another tale in the annuls of dogged persistence winning out over heartbreak along the way.
Talking of dogged, Claudia Stef must know every Challenge venue like the inside of her kitbag.
The 31-year-old Romanian even bettered Platzer by taking part in ALL seven series.
Her debut in the Paris World Championships in 2003, where she finished fourth, then saw her bag a first, two seconds, a third, a sixth and this time, a fourth again, to show her whole-hearted support for the initiative.
She claims that even on rough days she’s never ever contemplated a retirement from a race - and like Sanchez, Platzer and Loughnane, will tell you all good things come to those who wait.
Paul Warburton for the IAAF
Final Standings
Men
1. Eder Sánchez, Mexico
2. Wang Hao, China
3. Luke Adams, Australia
4. Chu Yafei, China
5. Jared Tallent, Australia
6. Xu Faguang, China
7. Jesús Sánchez, Mexico
Women
1. Kjersti Plätzer, Norway
2. Olive Loughnane, Ireland
3. Elisa Rigaudo, Italy
4. Claudia Stef, Romania
5. Ana Maria Groza, Romania
6. Susana Feitor, Portugal
7. Vera Santos, Portugal
8. Inês Henriques, Portugal
It pays to keep going if you race walk – ask Eder Sanchez.
It may seem the most blindingly obvious advice to athletes, but the Mexican champion would be the first to agree after he surmounted swine flu, a so-so collection of OK but unspectacular results, and other disappointments before finally sitting top of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge for 2009.
Sanchez gets to pocket the top-dollar $30,000 cheque for his efforts – and the knowledge that come next year when the IAAF World Walking Cup fetches up in his backyard at Chihuahua in May, he’ll probably be in pole position to make his bank manager smile there too.
From a different point of view, it also nudges his country back into walking’s limelight after a lean time of it for most of the decade.
More than 40 years ago Polish coach Jerzy Hausleber was hired to make sure Mexico City had at least one athletic medal to show for their pains in putting on the 1968 Olympics.
It all came good when Jose Pedraza staged a last-minute charge to come within a second of winning gold. And so up to 2000 it was a case of think walking – think Mexico.
But Bernardo Segura’s controversial DQ inside the Olympic stadium in Sydney heralded a lean time of it internationally for the country until Sanchez’s coming of age in 2009.
He finished third in last year’s Challenge having led the standings until the last couple of months of the season.
But an average Olympics and a DNF in the final race at Murcia saw both Jared Tallent and the retiring Jefferson Perez nip ahead of him in the shake-up.
This time, the improved Sanchez held his form to make sure there would be no second slip.
He opened his campaign in March with a repeat victory in Chihuahua half-a-minute quicker than his victory there 12 months ago.
But the key race proved to be his next tussle in China, at Wuxi to be precise, on April 18.
Sanchez’s battle-royale with Olympic champion Valeriy Borchin may have seen the Mexican lose out by five seconds as he shot through the line in 1:19:36 – but it relegated Hao Wang to fourth.
Come the final tally in September, the Chinese finished just two points down on Sanchez - 44 to 42 - but the 10 points he gained to Wang’s seven in Wuxi proved crucial.
An eight-pointer at La Coruna in June, finishing third to another Wang fourth, and then a reversal when the Chinese took silver and a PB to Sanchez’s bronze in the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, set up the showdown in Saransk for the finale on September 19.
The Mexican’s 38:31 over 10km to Wang’s 39:03 in Russia rubber-stamped a fine series.
“It gives me special joy to be able to re-establish Mexican walkers as among the best internationally,” Sanchez said. “People have noticed I have been climbing up the ladder of international race walking.
“In all my races this year, I finished in the top three and the judges have noticed my technique is good. Only in China I was given a yellow card, in Russia I finished with a clean board.”
Australian Luke Adams returned to the Challenge podium for third place having won the 2007 series. And despite drawing a blank in the previous two Challenges, China scored a hat-trick of appearances in the top seven when Yafei Chu finished fourth and countryman Faguang Xu came seventh.
But will there be a better ambassador of the Challenge than Kjersti Platzer?
The Norwegian competed in the inaugural 2003 series where she finished second, added another runner’s-up spot in 2007, and won the women’s event for the last two years before announcing her retirement in Saransk.
By the way, if you’re counting, that’s also a pretty hard slap in the face to the sceptics who claim you can’t get rich from a cinderella sport.
The 37-year-old’s earnings made it into six figures long before she got to the end of the road in the eastern Russian city.
Prepared to globetrot with brother Eric and husband Stephan, she had notched up four firsts by the Krakow edition on May 31 – and was already out of sight of the chasers.
Having defended her title in Chihuahua, she broke the tape at the Sesto San Giovanni and Rio Maior races, but came second to Sabine Zimmer-Krantz, who incidentally tied the knot down a coalmine in February, and then dug out a win in La Coruna by 30 seconds over Platzer.
That was still enough to create a path for the amiable and multi-lingual Norwegian to the top of the podium, and one, who’s enhanced more than a few Challenge press conferences over the years as well.
She said: “After Berlin and the World Championships, I had a lot of pain and it made it hard to train mentally. But two weeks before Saransk – the pain went.
“I didn’t think about it as my last race until afterwards. But two steps after the finish line I let out a big sigh of relief. Come the spring and competitions starting, I know a part of me would like to go out and race.”
But if the winner was clear from a long way out, the race for second came down to the wire.
In fact, had Elisa Rigaudo held off just a little as the Italian forged a five-second gap in the series final in Saransk – she might have been the one picking up the $20,000 cheque for runner-up.
As it turned out, Olive Loughnane drew level a little after 2km, and as the 10km race see-sawed between the two, a last kilometre sprint from the Irishwoman was worth an extra $6,000 to her.
Loughnane hinted at a decent year back in February. But she exceeded all expectations when she charged through the Brandenburg Gate to take silver at the World Championships in Berlin – and her Challenge success was another tale in the annuls of dogged persistence winning out over heartbreak along the way.
Talking of dogged, Claudia Stef must know every Challenge venue like the inside of her kitbag.
The 31-year-old Romanian even bettered Platzer by taking part in ALL seven series.
Her debut in the Paris World Championships in 2003, where she finished fourth, then saw her bag a first, two seconds, a third, a sixth and this time, a fourth again, to show her whole-hearted support for the initiative.
She claims that even on rough days she’s never ever contemplated a retirement from a race - and like Sanchez, Platzer and Loughnane, will tell you all good things come to those who wait.
Paul Warburton for the IAAF
Final Standings
Men
1. Eder Sánchez, Mexico
2. Wang Hao, China
3. Luke Adams, Australia
4. Chu Yafei, China
5. Jared Tallent, Australia
6. Xu Faguang, China
7. Jesús Sánchez, Mexico
Women
1. Kjersti Plätzer, Norway
2. Olive Loughnane, Ireland
3. Elisa Rigaudo, Italy
4. Claudia Stef, Romania
5. Ana Maria Groza, Romania
6. Susana Feitor, Portugal
7. Vera Santos, Portugal
8. Inês Henriques, Portugal