Previews21 Aug 2011


Men's 20Km Race Walk - PREVIEW

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Valeriy Borchin dominates in Sesto San Giovanni (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)

Valeriy Borchin, a runaway winner of the 20km Race Walk title at the last World Championships in Berlin, is unlikely to find life easy as he makes his defence.


Borchin, who only turns 25 on 11 September, has already amassed a formidable CV, having taken gold at the European Championships in 2006, silver in the following year’s IAAF World Race Walking Cup, before winning successive Olympic and World titles.


But this year he is likely to find himself in the middle of a gigantic struggle between himself and his Russian colleagues and a group of precociously talented Chinese race walkers who have established themselves at the top of the event.


The 2011 world listings tell their own story. Of the top eight, four are Russian, three Chinese. And it is the latter group who come to Daegu with a slight edge.


Zhen Wang, who will be 20 on 24 August, set this year’s fastest time of 1:18:30 in winning at Taicang on 22 April.


He finished 15 seconds clear of his fellow countryman Yafei Chu, who is second fastest in the world this year, and 22 seconds clear of the 19-year-old Ding Chen, World Junior 10,000m Race Walk champion in 2008, who is third on the list.


Just to emphasise the Chinese potential, Zhen Wang and Yafei Chu had already gone to the top of the list with the times they had set in Lugano on 20 March, when Zhen won in 1:18.37 and Chu was second in 1:18.45.


And such is their strength in depth that Ding Chen has been unable to command a place in the team – the third place has gone to the athlete who challenged Borchin up to the 16km mark in Berlin before taking silver at the age of 20 – Hao Wang, who emphasised his talent by winning the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Chihuahua last year.


Borchin’s best this year is 1:18.55, set at Rio Maior on 9 April.


Behind Borchin in the listing is his 26-year-old team mate Vladimir Kanaykin, a former World Junior champion in the 10,000m race walk, who set the World record of:1:17:16 in 2007, a year before incurring a two-year ban from competition which he completed last September.


Kanaykin has a time of 1:19.14 to his credit which he set in winning at Sochi on 26 February.


Immediately behind him is 23-year-old Sergey Morozov, European Junior champion at 10,000m race walk in 2007, who also completed a two-year ban last September.


Completing the Russian’s quartet – with Borzin taking his automatic place as defending champion - is 20-year-old Stanislav Emelyanov, World Youth champion at 10,000m race walk in 2007, and World Junior champion a year later, who set a time of 1:19:33 in finishing second to Borchin at Rio Maior.


There will be huge home interest, however, in whether Hyunsub Kim will be able to break into the Russians and Chinese domination of this race. The 26-year-old South Korean was only 34th in Berlin in a time of 1:27:08, but he is seventh fastest in the world this year having won at Nomi on 13 March in 1:19.31.


Eder Sanchez of Mexico, who was third behind Borzin and Emelyanov in Rio Maior, will also have his eye on a podium finish. His Rio Maior time of 1:19:36 makes him the ninth fastest man this year, one place ahead of Australia’s Jared Tallent, who finished second in the 201o listings but is finding life significantly tougher this year.


Tallent knows what he is up against in Daegu, however, as his 2011 best time of 1:19:57 came as he finished fourth in Taicang behind the leading Chinese trio.


Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF


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