Jefferson Perez takes his third career World 20km title (© Getty Images)
Ecuador's threetime World champion Jefferson Perez and Spain's World and Olympic silver medallist Francisco Javier Fernandez lead the 14-country field already confirmed for the first leg of the 2008 IAAF Race Walking Challenge, to be held in this northern Mexican city 8-9 March.
Former walker (1997 World bronze medallist) and head of Chihuahua's State Sports Institute Miguel Angel Rodríguez announced the attendance of two of the world's best 20km specialists for the Mexican race.
Osaka World Championships fourth place finisher Eder Sanchez carries the host country's hopes in a race that will help select the team for the IAAF Race Walking Cup in Cheboksary, Russia, 10-11 May.
"I am doing a different preparation towards Beijing, with less high altitude training and more endurance to speed work. I will race in Chihuahua with the hope to make the team for the World Cup and then the Olympic Games," Sanchez said.
Some of Mexico's top walkers are currently training at altitude in Bolivia, including veteran Bernardo Segura, the 1996 Olympic bronze medallist, 2007 Mexico's Challenge 20km winner Omar Segura, 2000 World junior champion Cristian Berdeja and Jesús Sánchez.
Chihuahua-born Horacio Nava and Gabriel Ortiz are also doing a one-month preparation in the South American country.
Nava, the 2007 Pan American Games 50km silver medallist and seventh at the 2006 World Cup, ranks as Mexico's best 50km specialist, together with Omar Zepeda, but is expected to contest over the shorter distance in his home town.
The names of the women's contestants are yet to be confirmed.
According to the organizers, athletes from 14 countries will compete in the first stop of the IAAF Challenge: Ecuador, El Salvador, Armenia, Sweden, Tunisia, Peru, Spain, Norway, Cuba, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Poland, Guatemala and the United Sates. Eight more nations are slated to send delegations.
Organizers also expected the attendance of 2007 Challenge winners Luke Adams of Australia and Ryta Turava of Belarus.
For some, Chihuahua is part of their preparation for the World Cup and the Olympic Games. For others, the second weekend of March will be crucial in their aspirations to book a ticket to Beijing.
Raul Gonzalez, the 1984 Olympic champion and the head of the race walking commission in the Mexican Athletics Federation (FMA), said that the FMA will pay tribute to Poland's Herzy Hausleber, instrumental in Mexico's early success in race walking.
The race will be held along the "División del Norte" avenue on a course known as "Circuito Pancho Villa".
Mexico has hosted the first leg of the IAAF Challenge since its inception in 2003 was awarded the right to organize in 2010 its first World Cup since 1993. The venue is also in Chihuahua.
The seven-event Series will end in September with a Final in a venue to be determined.
Previous winners of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge:
2003 Robert Korzeniowski (POL) / Gillian O'Sullivan (IRL)
2004 Robert Korzeniowski (POL) / Elisa Rigaudo (ITA)
2005 Francisco Javier Fernández (ESP) / Ryta Turava (BLR)
2006 Francisco Javier Fernández (ESP) / Claudia Stef (ROM)
2007 Luke Adams (AUS) / Ryta Turava (BLR)
Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF
