Past winners primed to clash in Podebrady

Podebrady Walking – the third World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold race of 2024 – has again lured the sport’s finest to the spa town 40km east of Prague on Saturday (6).

The men’s 20km around the one-kilometre park loop in the centre of town is set to be dominated by Perseus Karlstrom, Caio Bonfim, Evan Dunfee – making his debut here – and last year’s surprise winner, Francesco Fortunato.

Swede Karlstom is no stranger to Podebrady. The four-time world medallist won in Podebrady for the first time in 2016. He added another victory four years later, and made it two in a row by winning the European Race Walking Team Championship here in 2021.

He was second last year behind Fortunato, second behind Bonfim in 2022, and third in 2017.

Karlstom’s 1:17:39 PB from last year’s World Championships as he chased winner Alvaro Martin was a breakthrough mark. The Swede – who won the 35km at the 2022 World Race Walking Team Championships – has what Australian coach Brent Vallance calls ‘repeatability’ in spades, but he was a surprise DNF at the first Race Walking Tour Gold race of the year in Taicang last month. Karlstrom was off the pace as early as 6km, and then laboured for another six kilometres before calling it a day, signing off with a relatively pedestrian 4:22 lap.

Bonfim was one of the athletes who finished ahead of Karlstrom that day. He also scored a PB of 1:17:44, which was good for third in a super-fast race.

Even so, like Karlstom, the Brazilian is no stranger to Podebrady. The two-time world bronze medallist won two years ago here, and he and the Swede will almost certainly be rubbing shoulders at the front.

Defending champion Fortunato will be trying to crevice between them. The Italian held his nerve and pace to beat teammate and Olympic champion Massimo Stano around the park last year. In doing so, he dipped a second under 1:19:00 to set a PB.

In February earlier this year he won the Premio Marcha de Guadix 10km in a season-opening 40:18. He followed that up last week with a with a 10,000m track PB of 38:51:71 in the second round of the Italian Club Championships.

Unlike the others, Canadian Dunfee will experience Lazensky Park for the first time. The Olympic and 2019 world bronze medallist has already clocked 1:19:23 in Adelaide earlier this year, the second-fastest time of his career behind the 1:18:03 PB that just edged him out of the medals in Budapest.

If not one of these, who else?

At the age of 32, Mexico’s Ever Jair Palma Olivares set a PB of 1:19:26 in Kobe in February. Teammate Jose Luis Doctor has a 1:19:41 PB from last year, and Bernardo Barrondo from Guatemala clocked a sprightly 1:20:31 on home soil – also in February.

Velli-Melli Partanen of Finland produced the best race of his career in Budapest where he placed sixth in a PB-busting 1:18:22, finishing just 10 seconds behind Germany’s Christopher Linke, a previous winner in Podebrady. Both men set national records in the Hungarian capital.

Factor in France’s Gabriel Bordier, who set a 1:18:59 PB in Budapest and clocked 1:20:12 just over two weeks ago in Fontenay-le-Comte, and it’s hard to imagine many more joining the spearhead at the front.

Like some of the men, Antonella Palmisano is equally fond of the leafy vista in the park.

The Italian Olympic gold medallist has been a regular visitor since 2009 when winning the U20 race, and she set the 20km course record in 2021, clocking 1:27:42 – the second of her two victories in Podebrady.

Along with her Olympic title, she has earned two World Championships bronze medals, the first of which was with a PB of 1:26:36 in 2017, as well as a European bronze in 2018.

She missed the 2022 season through injury, then returned last year to earn her second world bronze medal. But just one month later, she underwent an operation to correct imbalance in her hip action. She has also changed her coach to husband Lorenzo Dessi, and she recently claimed that she was feeling fitter now than she was in May last year, when she finished second in Podebrady.

She too had a leg-stretcher victory in Guadix in February, clocking 44:02 over 10km – good enough to beat Spain’s Laura Garcia-Caro by 1:17, herself no slouch at the distance.

This could be the last competitive year for 32-year-old Palmisano, who also suggested this week that the Olympics might be her swan song. “Getting to Los Angeles would mean another four years,” she said. “I would like to decide after Paris.”

However, she faces a battle she wasn’t expecting a month ago.

After stepping off the road just two kilometres into the 20km in Dudince last month, the second Gold Tour race, Kimberley Garcia has thrown her hat into the ring. The double 2022 world champion is looking to make up for that blip and, if recovered, will give Palmisano a race.

Katarzyna Zdzieblo, the double silver medallist behind Garcia at the 2022 World Championships, has also added her name to the start list. The Pole completed the race in Dudince, but finished sixth in 1:31:41 – somewhat shy of the 1:27:31 PB she set at the 2022 World Championships.

Other contenders include Germany’s Saskia Feige who set a PB of 1:28:28 last year, 2022 World Race Walking Team Championships winner Glenda Morejon of Ecuador, and local hero Elisa Martinkova, who set a PB of 1:30:08 in January and who will get roared on around the park.

Clemence Beretta is a dark horse for a podium spot. The 1:28:44 PB set by the Frenchwoman in Taicang last month chopped an impressive 1:36 from her previous best from 2023.

One thing’s for certain: there will be no stroll around the park for the winner in either race.

Paul Warburton for World Athletics