The Asian Race Walking Championships were held in Wajima, Japan, in conjunction with the 90th Japanese National Championships, last Sunday (16 April).
China’s 18-year-old Zhao Jianguo walked the 50Km in 3:41:10 to win the event and post the quickest ever time by a junior race walker. Another Chinese walker Ni Liang was the previous quickest (3:41:30, Nanjing, CHN, 22 Oct 2005).
Zhao’s compatriot Li Jianbo took the silver in 3:43:02 while the host nation’s Yuki Yamazaki bettered the national mark with 3:43:38 to claim the bronze, en route to next month’s IAAF World Race Walking Cup in La Coruña, Spain (13 / 14 May 2006).
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
Results:
Men:
20Km:
1. Xu Xingde (CHN) 1:22:17
2. Koichiro Morioka (JPN) 1:24:44
3. Rustam Kuvatov (KAZ) 1:25:08
4. Byun Young-Joon (KOR) 1:25:54
5. Gurmeet Singh (IND) 1:25:57
6. Lee Dae-Ro (KOR) 1:27:20
50Km:
1. Zhao Jianguo (CHN) 3:41:10
(5km splits: 22:40; 45:05; 1:07:34; 1:29:42; 1:51:34; 2:13:35; 2:35:55; 2:58:03; 3:19:18; 3:41:10)
2. Li Jianbo (CHN) 3:43:02
3. Yuki Yamazaki (JPN) 3:43:38
4. Takayuki Tanii (JPN) 3:47:23
5. Basat Sita Ram (IND) 4:18:47
Women:
20Km:
1. Svetlana Tolstaya (KAZ) 1:30:22
2. Yang Sha (CHN) 1:31:09
3. Sun Lihua (CHN) 1:31:30
4. Mayumi Kawasaki (JPN) 1:34:19
5. Amandeep Kaur (IND) 1:45:34
