Robert Korzeniowski (© Getty Images)
The fourth and penultimate leg of the 2003 IAAF Race Walking Challenge 2003 - GP Cantones De La Coruna - takes place this Saturday 7 June with a men’s and women’s 20km, which respectively will be highlighted by the presence of Robert Korzeniowski of Poland and Ireland’s Gillian O’Sullivan on the starting line.
To most sports fans, the city of La Coruna, which lies at the north west of Spain in the province of Galicia, is renowned for its football club. The Deportivo La Coruna, created in 1906, which claimed for instance the Spanish Cup last year against the star-studded Real Madrid. To othe curious onlookers, La Coruna, reminds them instead of Pablo Picasso, as the painter lived there for four years. And, to the joyful gastronomists, the Spanish city is associated with unique sea food.
However, this weekend the menu is totally different, for the 92 race walkers (62 men and 30 women) have travelled to Galicia to take part in the XVII GP Cantones de La Coruna.
The women (start at 18.30) and the men (18.50) will both tackle a 20km race walk on a 1-km-long circuit.
In the women’s event, Ireland’s Gillian O’Sullivan aims at a three-peat after having clinched two victories from two participations in Tijuana (8 March) and Sesto San Giovanni (1 May). The 26-year-old athlete from Cork, had proven to be unstoppable in both events and will try to repeat her exploits in Spain.
If successful, O’Sullivan would be assured of winning the first edition of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge as the final standings for both men and women will be based on the best three results achieved by each athlete.
The Irish athlete, who trained with Poland’s three-time Olympic champion Robert Korzeniowski in Mexico last March, will, however, have to hold off the competitive assault of Susana Feitor. The Portuguese athlete, who will compete a few miles away from her home country, will be eager to re-confirm her current lead on top of the Challenge standings.
Yet, the surprise could come from Carolina Jimenez Munoz. The 23-year-old Spaniard, who was 6th in the Challenge event in Rio Maior, Portugal on 5 April, recently won a 5km race in a personal best of 22:52.23 in Castellón on the 18 May.
Before a cheering crowd, Jimenez and the Spanish team will try to live up to their reputation of being hard to beat on home soil.
Francisco Javier Fernandez intends to prove that more than anybody else. The men’s World record holder over 20km, sent a warning message to his opponents on 1 June in Madrid, when he set a 10km personal best of 38:55.
Fernandez or “Paquillo” as his fans nicknamed him, who currently leads the overall standings with a total of 19 points, last time out in Sesto San Giovanni defeated Poland’s World, Olympic and European 50km champion Korzeniowski, and Olympic 50km silver medallist Aigars Fadejevs of Latvia, who are both in second place in the overall Race Walking Challenge standings with 17 points.
Robert Korzeniowski has yet to win a Challenge event. The world’s most popular Race Walker should find the ideal circuit in La Coruna. After having finished third in 1994, the Pole captured the 20km race on this course back in 1996, when the Spanish city hosted the European Cup.
Yet, will Poland’s World record holder over 50km, even though he is also Olympic 20km champion, be capable of outpacing the world's fastest ever walker over 20km, especially when the latter is racing on home soil and at his specialist distance?
On Saturday, Korzeniowski, who speaks perfectly Spanish, may wish to recall the local saying: “Nunca es tarde para ien hacer” - “It’s never too late.”
By an IAAF Correspondent
