News08 Mar 2007


Deakes, injured by physio, delays his plans for IAAF Race Walking Challenge

FacebookTwitterEmail

Nathan Deakes en route to his 5000m Race Walk national record in Melbourne (© Getty Images)

Nathan Deakes, who set the newly ratified World record for the 50km Race Walk of 3:35:47 in December, will be spending more time looking at his IAAF World record plaque hanging up in his pool room than expected, as he has had to pull out of the IAAF World Race Walking Challenge event in Shenzhen, China, on 24 March, which would have been his Challenge opener.

“In early January I received a haemorrhage in my upper hamstring, from some over-zealous work from a physio!” said Deakes this week, pointing out that it was not his regular therapist that helped get him back into such good shape last year.

“So, unfortunately, I literally had to sit around and wait for the bleeding to stop in my leg, which took longer than expected. So I’ve only been back training a couple of weeks, slowly building up again. I stayed fit cross-training on the stationary bike, but there’s only so much of that your mind can tolerate!”

“Therefore the Nationals are out (the 85th Australian Championships in Brisbane this weekend), as is the Chinese leg of the IAAF Challenge. I’ll be heading over to Italy at the end of March to our base, so fingers crossed I should be moving well for Rio Maior.”

The 16° Grande Premio Internacional en Marcha Atletica at Rio Maior, Portugal, is the third of the seven IAAF Challenge events and is set for 14 April.

Last month Deakes picked up further recognition for his World record by being voted Male Athlete of the Year at the Confederation of Australian Sport Awards. The last Australian male track and field athlete to win the award was Steve Moneghetti in 1990, while the last female winner was Cathy Freeman in 1997.

Nathan is the first Australian male track and field athlete to break a World record since Ralph Doubell equalled the World record in the 800m, when winning the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.

Deakes set his best ever time over 20km of 1:17:33 in winning the 2005 IAAF Race Walking Challenge event in Cixi City, China, which was also the world's fastest time for that year. He finished in second place in the overall Challenge to Francisco Fernández of Spain that year but had to miss the World Championships due to a recurrence of the persistent hamstring injury that has afflicted him, on and off, since 2002.

He did return, however, in time for the last race of last year’s Challenge at the World Cup in La Coruña. He finished fifth but was, as he acknowledges, just a couple of weeks from being ready to mount a serious challenge to Fernández on that occasion.

Deakes has let it be known that the firm focus for this season is the World Championships in Athletics, Osaka Japan (25 Aug to 2 Sep), where he’s set his sights on the 50km title.

Deakes is unusual in juggling both Race Walk events since finishing eighth at 20km and sixth over 50km in the Sydney Olympics. “I made a decision after the World Cup last year to concentrate on 50km preparation. I still think I can double in Osaka and do well in both, and then in Beijing, but I don’t see any athlete since Korzeniowski dominating at 50km. I’d like to be the person to do that.”

With Deakes now the fourth fastest ever 20km walker and the fastest at 50km, he is now confident that, if he manages his injury problems, that he can be victorious on the world stage.

“To be so successful almost came a little too early but its given me the confidence that what we’re doing is right and I’m setting myself up to, hopefully, do a good 50km in Osaka in August.”

Tim Watt for the IAAF

Loading...