News23 Apr 2005


Oceanian and Asian records fall in Cixi - Deakes records quickest 20km Race Walk of 2005 - updated

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Nathan Deakes of Australia wins the 20km in Tijuana (© Conade)

The third leg of the 2005 IAAF Race Walking Challenge in the city of Cixi, China, lived up to the expectations of quality fields. This time, however, it was not a Chinese walker finishing first, but the 2004 Olympic bronze medallist Nathan Deakes (AUS). Deakes crushed his four-year-old Oceanian record of 1:18:14 setting a whole new standard with his winning mark of 1:17:33.

Deakes' time is also a world leading time in 2005 surpassing Vladimir Parvatkin’s (RUS) 1:18:06 which he walked in Sochi in March.

27-year-old Deakes who took third place in the 1996 World Junior Championships in Sydney, has been very close to the top positions in major global championships ever since. He was 7th in the 1999 World Championships 20km, 8th in the 2000 Sydney Olympics (6th in 50km), 4th in the 2001 World Championships before finally grabbing a medal in the Athens Olympics.

This season, however, is looking to be his best ever and the Australian will be looking for a gold medal in the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. Deakes started his season with a fast 1:19:23 in Canberra in February before winning the Nationals in Sydney in March with 1:19:39. He then won the first leg of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Tijuana (1:21:28) and took second place with a season’s best of 1:19:15 in the second leg in Rio Maior.

His Ocenian record in Cixi, 1:17:33, takes him to fourth place in the world all-time list behind the World record of 1:17:21 set by Jefferson Perez (ECU) in the 2003 World Championships, 1:17:22 by Francisco Javier Fernandez (ESP), the previous World record which was walked in Turku, Finland in 2002, and Vladimir Stankin’s (RUS) world leading time from 2004 of 1:17:23.

1:17:41 - Asian record

In rainy conditions today Deakes did not get his win easily in Cixi, because as expected, last year’s winner of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Kunshan, China’s Zhu Hongjun, fought until the very end finishing only seven seconds behind the Australian.

21-year-old Zhu, who had narrowly missed the Asian record of 1:18:32 set by Li Zewen in 1997, with his winning result of 1:18:37 in Dudince, Slovakia, in March, bettered that result by a big margin of 56 seconds. His brand new Asian record of 1:17:41 takes the fifth place in the world all-time list right behind Deakes’ winning performance here.

22-year-old Cui Zhide of China finished third in the race in another fast time of 1:17:53 clearly bettering his personal of best of 1:19:34 set in February 2005.

World record holder Jefferson Perez finished 64th in 1:28:57.

World Junior record just missed by a second

The biggest upset in the race was produced only 15-year-old Li Gaobo, from Jiangsu province, finishing in fourth place in 1:18:07. Li, who was 37th in last year’s Kunshan meeting in 1:27:41, has progressed a great deal this season. In Nanning in February he set his personal best at 1:22:33, but the two months between that competition and Cixi really made the difference. Li’s time is the best ever by 15, 16 and 17-year-olds and also missed Viktor Burayev’s (RUS) World junior best of 1:18:06 from 2001 by only a second. Li moves to second place in the World junior all-time list surpassing Xu Xingde (also CHN), he held the Asian junior record before with his 1:19:14 from 2003.

50km specialists Xing Shucai and Yu Chaohong took the fifth and sixth places respectively. 20-year-old Xing, already the world’s second fastest 50km of 2005 (3:37:58), bettered his earlier 20km best by a big margin of more than three minutes. Xing finished in 1:18:30 with Yu Chaohong, who was fourth in the 2004 Athens Olympics 50km race, taking sixth place in 1:18:31, also a personal best.

Best ever depth

The quality in the race was the best ever, with the top six finishing in 1:18:30 or better, four of them Chinese. The previous best for a sixth place finisher was 1:18:55 by Yevgeniy Misyulya (BLR) in Podebrady World Cup in 1997. This was also the first time when three walkers finished below the 1:18-limit. Previously the best mark for third place was 1:18:07, Roman Rasskazov’s (RUS) bronze medal result from Paris World Championships in 2003.


WOMEN – Jiang Jing close to PB but Olympic champion disqualified

2005 Chinese National Champion Jiang Jing, the biggest favourite in the women’s race, won the 20km in 1:27:56. Jiang came quite close to her personal best of 1:27:19 set in Nanning in February, but other favourites, 2000 Olympic champion Wang Liping and Song Hongjuan, who was defending her win in last year’s edition of this race, were both unable to finish in the top three.

But there was another big surprise waiting in this race. Before the Cixi competition, Yang Yawei, 19 years old from Chongqing, was not considered by anyone. However, Yang, who walked his pre-2005 best in September 2004 clocking 1:36:38 and finished only 11th in the National Championships in Nanning in February in a personal best of 1:33:05, was able to better that performance by more than five minutes here!

Yang barely lost in the final metres of the race today finishing second in 1:27:58, for fourth place in the World junior all-time list. Yang will probably threaten Song Hongjuan’s World junior mark of 1:27:16 later this season.

Jiang Qiuyan finished third in another personal best of 1:28:01, bettering her earlier mark of 1:30:03 from 2003 by more than two minutes.

The 2004 surprise Olympic champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka (GRE) was not as lucky, she got disqualified today.

Mirko Jalava for the IAAF


IAAF Race Walking Challenge
Cixi, Zhejiang province, China, 23 April 2005

Click here for FULL RESULTS

Men
1 Nathan Deakes AUS 1:17:33 Oceanian record
2 Zhu Hongjun CHN 1:17:41 Asian record
3 Cui Zhide CHN 1:17:53 PB
4 Li Gaobo (23.7.1989) 1:18:07 Asian junior record
5 Xing Shucai 1:18:27 PB
6 Yu Chaohong CHN 1:18:30 PB

Women
1 Jiang Jing CHN 1:27:56
2 Yang Yawei (86) CHN 1:27:58 PB
3 Jiang Qiuyan CHN 1:28:01 PB.

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