Previews11 Feb 2010


Sanchez walks with longer-term goals in mind in Hobart – IAAF Race Walking Challenge preview

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Second consecutive Krakow win for Eder Sanchez (© Grzegorz Lipinski)

The 2009 champion will kick off the defence of his crown when the IAAF 2010 Race Walking Challenge gets under way in Hobart on Saturday (13), but Eder Sanchez will have other things on his mind besides the race around the picturesque waterfront.

This Oceania Area Permit Meeting marks the first time the series has ventured to the southern hemisphere in its eight-year history and may also be the furthest south an IAAF event has ever been conducted. It will be the first of the 10 races - including the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Chihuahua, Mexico, on 15-16 May - through which walkers can qualify for the final in Beijing on 18 September.

Sanchez topped last year’s rankings, a feat rewarded with US$30,000 in prize money. He will be one of the favourites again this year, but the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in his home country of Mexico has ordained a slight re-ordering of his priorities.

The 23-year-old acknowledges he is the focus of his country’s mission to regain its former status as a world walking power, so he will have his sights fixed on success in Chihuahua and, before that, making the team. Mexico’s trial will be held on 26 February.

Sanchez, Adrian Herrera and David Mejia have been training at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra since early in 2010. It is Sanchez’s second visit to the AIS campus in Australia’s ‘bush capital’.

“I feel very happy here,” he said on the eve of his departure for Hobart. “The AIS has all the facilities for training, recovery and support.”

While he appreciates the hospitality, Sanchez will have no hesitation in biting the hand that feeds him if the opportunity presents on Saturday evening. But the selection trial and World Walking Cup are higher priorities for the world championships 20km bronze medallist.

“It’s very important for me. It is in my country and I want to win,” he says.

With Commonwealth berths on the line, a very strong domestic line-up

Japan’s Yuki Yamazaki (11th in the Beijing Olympic 20km and seventh in the 50) and World championships representative Isamu Fujisawa will also compete, along with walkers from New Zealand and Sweden. Local interest, however, will focus firmly on the return of Osaka 2007 world 50km champion Nathan Deakes and the battle for places in the Australian team for the Commonwealth Games.

Deakes virtually has not competed since Osaka, and he returns to face not only a deeper pool of potential rivals but also a contest for three Commonwealth Games men’s spots instead of the usual six.

Deakes has won both the 20 and 50km events at the past two editions of the Games, but New Delhi has a 20km only. Jared Tallent, the Olympic 20km and 50km minor medallist, has been pre-selected given his top-8 finish in the Berlin 20, leaving 2007 Race Walking Challenge winner Luke Adams, World championships reps Chris Erickson and Adam Rutter, and Deakes contesting the remaining two positions.

Despite the fact that he has no recent form, Deakes’ legendary status in Australian walking means he is given plenty of respect. If his opponents are not worried about what the 32-year-old has been doing, they are concerned about what he might do based on his record and reputation.

“It’s going to be good, it's a great field lined up and if you think about it we're going to have the last three winners of the Challenge racing with me, Luke Adams and Eder Sanchez all out there and with Nathan Deakes coming back as well it will make for a pretty tough Commonwealth Games trial,” Jared Tallent said a few days ago.

The course follows the Hobart waterfront around Constitution Dock, finish area for the world-famous Sydney to Hobart ocean race. The harbour has outstanding backdrop, but no-one will be paying much attention for the 80-or-so minutes it takes to decide Saturday’s race.

Women’s race not strong, but potentially as close

The women’s 20km will also serve as Australia’s Commonwealth Games selection trial. Although boosted by the presence of four New Zealand representatives for a trans-Tasman U23 match, it does not have the international breadth of the men’s field.

The domestic competition will be just as fierce, however, with little separating Jess Rothwell, Australia’s leading finisher in Berlin last year, from world championships teammates Cheryl Webb and Claire Tallent and Beijing 2008 rep Kellie Wapshott.

Again, only three places are available in the New Delhi team, so someone will miss out.

Len Johnson for the IAAF
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