Olga Kaniskina: world 20km walk champion last year, Olympic champion this year (© Getty Images)
There was another set of blisteringly quick times set at the Russian Winter Race Walking Championships in Alder today (28).
Olympic 20km race walk champions Valeriy Borchin and Olga Kaniskina won their 20km races yesterday in 1:17:38 and 1:24:56 respectively.
Kaniskina’s time is way inside the current ratified world record of 1:25:41 (Olimpiada Ivanova). 21-year-old Vera Sokolova and the 19-year-old Anisiya Kirdiapkina were the runners-up with the same result – 1:25.26. Yelena Shumkina was just a bit behind them – 1:25.32.
In the men's race the 22-year-old Borchin was followed home by Petr Trofimov, second in 1:19.02. Andrei Krivov was third – 1:19.55.
World Junior champion Stanislav Yemelyanov walked 38:43 for 10km which is also way under the ratified junior 10km World record of 39:57 held by Aleksey Bartsaykin, while the women’s World Junior champion Tatyana Mineyeva sped to 42:36 which is faster than the European Junior record (Tatyana Kalmykova, 42:44).
But none of the marvellous record times in any of these races are likely ever to gain official status as at least 3 international judges have to be present for records to be ratified.
The 35km race is not an international championships distance but it is used by coaches to check what is the real condition of the top walkers and what are their prospects at 50km. In Alder, 22-year-old Sergei Bakulin clocked 2:24.25 to defeat Denis Nizhegorodov who has won two medals at the two consecutive Olympics - 2:24.56. The 22-year-old Andrei Ruzavin remained third – 2:25.19.
Overall, more than 200 walkers participated in the Nationals. They competed in 4 age groups: seniors, U-23, U-20 and U-18 years. Besides the national walkers, athletes from Kazakhstan also took part as guests.
The weather left much to be desired. It seemed that cold winds and rains would spoil the whole well prepared show but in spite of the grimaces of the competitors results were not affected.
"The tournament was not the most important meeting for us," said the senior coach of the national Russian walking team Aleksei Melnikov.
"Though we knew that our leading walkers are in top form we just wanted to check them in action. And it is for sure that international referees will be invited to the summer Russian Championships when we'll select the team for the World championships in Berlin."
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF