Yelena Nikolayeva of Russia (r) walking in La Coruña (© Luis Saladie)
20yearold Song Hongjuan, who holds the world leading time of 1:26:46 this season, but faded to sixth place in the World Cup in Naumburg three weeks ago, won the IAAF China Race Walking Challenge 20km in Kunshan, China, this morning.
In Naumburg, Song Hongjuan had tried to hold on to World champion Yelena Nikolayeva of Russia with no success, but competing today in her native Jiangsu Province she proved to be more succesfull.
Song, whose technique is definitely better than last year, won the race in warm weather in 1:28:12, almost two minutes faster than Nikolayeva's 1:30:11 which was enough for the second place.
Song, who entered last summer's Paris World Championships as a pre-race favourite and world leader, was disqualified there and focused on bettering her technique during the winter.
Reigning Olympic Champion Wang Liping is still behind her best form, understandably after giving birth in last November, finished in fifth with a time of 1:32:22.
Men's 20km
25-year-old Han Yucheng, from Liaoning Province, completed the Chinese double today by winning the men's race. Han, who is the world leader over 50km distance this season, finished just under 1 hour 20 minutes with 1:19:59.
Han, who finished fourth in the World Cup in Naumburg, has now completed three 20km races this season, all of them under 1:20.
Cui Zhide, 21, grabbed second place with a big personal best of 1:20:12. Cui is a 50km specialist too, he finished seventh in Naumburg, and cut exactly three minutes off his earlier personal best from March 2004.
Zhu Hongjun, who was another world leading athlete before Paris and was disqualified there, was third with 1:20:41.
Zhu has progressed considerably with his technique, although he faded badly in Naumburg and finished only 25th there. He finished second in the Chinese Olympic Trials earlier this year and will start in the Athens Olympics.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
Top Results: (warnings in Brackets)
Men
1 Han Yucheng CHN 1:19:59 (1)
2 Cui Zhide CHN 1:20:12 PB (1)
3. Zhu Hongjun CHN 1:20:41 (1)
4. Lu RongHua CHN 1:20:55
5. Pei Chuang CHN 1:22:12 (2)
6. Si TianFeng CHN 1:22:44
7. Xing ShuCai CHN 1:22:53 (2)
8. Bian AiGuo CHN 1:23:00 (2)
Women
1 Song Hongjuan CHN 1:28:12
2 Yelena Nikolayeva RUS 1:30:11 (1)
3 Xu AiHui CHN 1:30:53
4 Caludia Stef ROM 1:32:10
5 Wang Liping CHN 1:32:22
6 Zhang Nan CHN 1:32:27
7 Tang YingHua CHN 1:32:36 (1)
8 Liu Feifei CHN 1:33:02