Chinese race walker Liu Hong in action (© AFP / Getty Images)
Caio Bonfim is set to defend his title at the third leg of the World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold series – the Korzeniowski Warsaw Race Walking Cup – on Sunday (5) but the Brazilian faces an intriguing challenge from Toshikazu Yamanishi.
The two-time world champion from Japan was at the peak of his game following Olympic bronze, a second world title in 2022 and the World Race Walking Team Championships individual victory in Muscat. Then came 2023, and a somewhat rockier road.
A telling result almost exactly a year ago to the day was third place at the Rio Maior Gold Tour race when Yamanishi, who has a 1:17:15 personal best, had no answer to a last 5km as Bonfim and Ecuador’s Brian Pintado disappeared into the distance. Yamanishi finished in 1:20:58, more than a minute behind second-place Bonfim.
His 24th position at the World Championships in Budapest was nearly a minute slower still. And that rarest of things, a disqualification, was his unwelcome 28th birthday present at the Japanese Race Walking Championships in Kobe in February.
However, Yamanishi is looking not just to this race, or the Olympics in Paris, but to the next World Championships – again on home soil in 2025.
“I have a strong desire to win in Tokyo because I couldn’t win in Budapest,” he said. “It will be held in Japan so I am looking forward to having many people watching our race as I prepare for the Games.”
Bonfim is in top form after recording a 1:17:44 PB in Taicang at the first Gold Tour race of the year. He was third in Podebrady last month in 1:18:50, and looked on course to share gold with Viviane Lyra in the inaugural mixed marathon relay at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya last month until a late penalty demoted them to fifth.
If not this illustrious pair around the 1.2km loop in Teatralny Square and Piłsudskiego Square, who else?
Zhang Jun won the Taicang race in 1:17:26, his third sub-78-minute clocking at the distance and a PB. Wang Zhaozhao recorded an impressive 1:17:48 in Taicang also, but faded to 57th in Antalya. The Chinese pair won’t be short of friendly company: seven of their teammates will toe the line in Warsaw.
Australia’s Declan Tingay clocked a PB of 1:18:30 in Budapest, and in Antalya was key to ensuring a second Australian team will toe the line in the Olympic mixed marathon relay.
Team-mate Rhydian Cowley, partnering Jemima Montag, finished some way ahead of Tingay in Antalya. Cowley’s preparation for Paris looks very much on song with a 1:18:33 clocking in Taicang; not to mention 38:13.51 on the track over 10,000m at the Australian Championships in April, a result bettered by Tingay in 38:07.88 for the win.
The sentimental cheers of the morning are headed the way of Dawid Tomala. The hometown hero and Olympic 50km gold medallist was a non-finisher in Dudince in March, but he recovered to partner Katarzyna Zdzieblo to an Olympic mixed relay place in Antalya. The 34-year-old’s 20km PB of 1:20:30 dates back to 2013.
Kimberly Garcia, winner over 20km in Warsaw last year, had initially opted to contest the 10km this weekend, but the double 2022 world champion has since pulled out of that, concentrating instead on recovery from her World Race Walking Team Championships win in Antalya.
All eyes will be on Montag and a clutch of talented Chinese race walkers, all of whom finished inside 1:28 in Taicang. The contingent includes four-time world champion Liu Hong, 2012 Olympic champion Qieyang Shijie, plus Ji Haiying and Shi Yuxia, who finished sixth and seventh respectively in Antalya.
Now a mother anticipating a 37th birthday next week, Liu’s appetite for global success still burns strong. The 2016 Olympic champion has won races all over the world, and she recently clocked 1:26:47 in Taicang – her fastest time in three years – to underline her current form.
Montag made a breakthrough statement in 2023 with silver at the World Championships in 1:27:16. The 26-year-old medical student followed that up by setting an Oceanian record of 1:27:09 in February, and then finished sixth alongside Cowley in Antalya’s mixed marathon relay. She too knows all about performing on foreign shores.
Poland’s double 2022 world silver medallist Katarzyna Zdziebło will get huge support on the course, and there’s a welcome return to competition for Antigoni Ntrismpioti. The 40-year-old from Greece has raced just once this year, clocking 44:39.83 on the track for 10,000m in Canberra, but the 2022 double European champion has pedigree in spades.
She will need to be with Chinese vests and Montag alongside ready to set a fast pace.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics
