Italy's Elisabetta Perrone (434 ) and Erica Alfridi (422) celebrate in Edmonton (© Getty Images)
Lisbon, PortugalThe second meeting of the inaugural IAAF Race Walking Challenge took place today in the city of Rio Maior, about 100 km from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. Over the distance of 20km, Aigars Fadejevs from Latvia (1:21:18) and the Italian Elisabetta Perrone (1:30:35) were the respective men’s and women’s race winners on a “hard circuit”, with many “ups and downs”, in hot temperatures.
Fadejevs, the 50km Olympic silver medallist in Sydney, kept his attack for victory until the last 5 km having merely observed and controlled developments in the race from behind until that point. This was his fourth victory in four outings at this annual walking meet in Rio Maior.
The Spaniard Juan Molina finished in second nearly 40 seconds behind (1:21:57), with the Portuguese João Vieira (1.23.18) completing the podium positions.
“Rio Maior feels good to me! I’m extraordinary happy with my fourth victory in four participations. My performance was just fine considering the weather (particularly hot today...) and the very hard circuit. Next, I will walk 50 km (Germany, 13th April) and then you can count on me again in (future) IAAF Challenge events”, explained Fadejevs.
The Italian Elizabetta Perrone (1:30:35), 1996 Olympic 10km silver and 2002 World 20km bronze medallist, was the winner of the women’s 20km event. She led the race almost from the start but in the last section came under a sustained challenge from the Romanian walker Norica Cimpean (1:30:59). Sonata Milusauskaite LAT ended up third in 1:32:15.
Susana Feitor, the main Portuguese race walker, was not expected to participate, as she is still recovering from a leg injury, but she did anyway, and finished a creditable fifth after being in second place until about 5 km from the finish line.
“After my disappointing passage through Mexico (the first IAAF Challenge event in Tijuana), where I really did not go well, it’s wonderful to win in Portugal. This was indeed my best race of the year and I’m very satisfied, since I came back from a bad period. I believe now I’m ok for the rest of the IAAF Challenge and season,” confirmed Perrone.
See also www.marktejo.pt/gpriomaior
The IAAF Race Walking Challenge is composed with six events and takes place in three continents: one in America (Tijuana), one in Asia (Xanghai) and three in Europe (Rio Maior, La Coruña and San Giovanni), culminating in the World Championships in Paris (August).
Coaching presentation with Antonio la Torre
Making as much of this international Race Walking gathering as possible, the Portuguese Athletics Federation promoted a coaching seminar which was conducted by the Italian Antonio la Torre, coach to some of the world's best race walkers. The following subjects were discussed: "the young race walker", “training for a promising future", "periodisation training" and "modern tendencies" in the sport of Race Walking.
Paulo Costa for IAAF