Kimberly Garcia on her way to 20km race walk victory at the Korzeniowski Warsaw Race Walking Cup (© Marta Gorczynska)
Caio Bonfim and Kimberly Garcia won two fascinating races at the second Korzeniowski Warsaw Race Walking Cup – the latest stop in the World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold – on Sunday (23).
The eventual favourites both won in 21 degree heat, but not in the way they might have imagined.
Brazil's Bonfim prevailed in the men’s 20km event, while Peru's Garcia did the same in the women’s race, but the closing stages of both were in the balance right up to the last kilometre.
The men’s event quickly became a duel between Bonfim and Ecuador's Brian Pintado after the first 100m. They took early turns at the front, and were knocking off 1km laps slightly over 4:00 after the initial charge.
Pintado started to push the pace after 6km, and quickly stole three metres on the Brazilian. He also attracted the attention of judges who flashed warning paddles at the Ecuadorean.
Maybe it was a reason to rein for the next couple of kilometres, because Bonfim closed the gap only to find Pintado giving it a second go and hit his stopwatch close to 39:33 by halfway.
This time, a shift in gears appeared to pay dividends - and then it didn’t.
Bonfim put in a spurt at 11km, and Pintado initially was unable to respond. In fact, so brutal was the move, the eventual runner-up was soon sucking in oxygen in great gulps.
But to his credit, Pintado refused to yield, and he clawed back the deficit metre by metre with 2km to go.
Bonfim was clearly feeling the effects of his own effort, because a lapped Lukasz Niedzialek – eventually to win the Polish Championships held in conjunction – took a ride off Bonfim for a couple of hundred metres.
But then the man who won bronze at the 2017 World Championships pressed the accelerator for the final time, and this time it was decisive.
He crossed the finish in 1:19:42, 15 seconds ahead of Pintado.
Some way back for third, a sprint finish saw no brotherly love shown by Mexico’s Isaac Palma for younger brother Ever, who he beat by one second: 1:22:47 to 1:22:48.
France’s Kevin Campion had his best race in a while to finish fifth in 1:23:12, and a tired Niedzialek came home seventh in 1:24:53.
Garcia set off in the women’s race like she wanted to catch the Warsaw shops before they shut. As it turned out, she nearly got short changed.
Ahead by 40-plus seconds at half way, she tired badly and even got overtaken in the second half before rallying to mount a terrific fight and re-overtake near veteran Erica Sena.
The early disappointment was a DNS for Polish heroine Katarzyna Zdzieblo that meant the race was deprived of a battle between the one walker originally thought able to challenge the Peruvian champion.
So, as a competition, the women’s race seemed over after 25 metres. That’s all Garcia needed to get clear of the field.
And despite two very large strips of kinesthetic tape on both legs, the double world champion and pending 35km world record-holder was clear and gone.
Bearing in mind the circular course around the national stadium, it was less than three minutes before back markers in the women’s field saw the last of her fetching polka-dot kit, unless she was lapping them later on.
Behind her, Saskia Feige, fresh off the back of a personal best 1:28:28 in Erfurt just eight days ago, also detached herself from a group of five that included Sena.
But things changed dramatically in the second half. By 16km, Feige was done when it came to the battle for second place and she was clearly feeling the effects of last week’s effort on home soil.
So was Garcia, it seemed. Sena had surprisingly caught her and was pushing on, so that by 17km she had a nine-second advantage.
But, Garcia made it plain you don't become a double world champion by surrendering meekly, and strained every sinew over the last kilometre to rein in the tiring Brazilian whose face betrayed the effort of a great race even approaching her 38th birthday. Garcia won in 1:30:16 to Sena's 1:30:19.
Feige duly finished a distant third in 1:31:25, with Johana Ordonez from Ecuador an even more distant fourth in 1:34:09.
Ordonez's teammate Magaly Bonilla was fifth in 1:34:19.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics
