Kimberly Garcia on her way to 20km race walk victory at the Korzeniowski Warsaw Race Walking Cup (© Marta Gorczynska)
It’s round two for Kimberly Garcia and Erica Sena at the Grande Prémio Internacional de Rio Maior on Saturday (11) – the next Gold stop on the World Athletics Race Walking Tour.
Last year in the Portuguese town north of Lisbon, double 2022 world champion Garcia had to settle for fourth behind world record holder Yang Jiayu and her Chinese teammates Qieyang Shijie and Yang Liujing. Sena finished sixth.
But there are no Chinese race walkers in this year’s race, which will start at 6pm on Saturday, and in terms of 2024 times, no one else in this race is remotely close to the Peruvian and Brazilian.
Wind back the clock 12 months and Sena and Garcia enjoyed a battle royal in Warsaw at the Korzeniowski Race Walks before heading on to Rio Maior. Garcia won in Poland after coming from behind as Sena heaped on the pressure from halfway – and both have had great starts to 2024.
After a hiccup earlier this year in Dudince where she pulled out after just 2km, Garcia bounced back to win both the Podebrady leg of the series and the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Antalya 24. She won the latter in 1:27:12, just 32 seconds shy of her PB from June last year.
Sena was third in Antalya – her highest placing in a global race since the 2016 edition in Rome – in 1:29:22, just half a minute shy of her 2023 season’s best. In fact, the past two years have been something of a renaissance for the race walker who celebrated her 39th birthday earlier in the week.
The card she may have up her sleeve is racing sparingly in contrast to Garcia’s two big efforts in the past four weeks. On paper, it should be a hat-trick of wins for the Peruvian, but Sena is an experienced athlete and gave Garcia a fright in Warsaw last year.
Short of a minor disaster, places one and two are filled but there is plenty of competition for third on the podium.
Hungary’s Rita Recsei is the next best ranked with 1:31:40 from the 28-year-old’s national championships in March. Lucia Redondo recorded 1:33:03, a PB from only the Spaniard’s second 20km race which was in Antalya, and at just 20, she is one for the future.
The men’s race should produce a second South American battle.
Brian Pintado hopes to make it two in a row after his 2023 win in 1:19:05. However, the Ecuadorean’s march to glory was halted in Antalya with a surprising disqualification. But he did record 1:19:44 for second in Podebrady to go with a 35km silver medal at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, as well as a 1:18:26 PB at the shorter distance.
Peru’s César Rodriguez will be hoping to find chinks in Pintado’s armour. The 26-year-old won in Podebrady in a breakthrough PB of 1:19:41, but slipped to 1:22:01 and 25th in Antalya – the result of a two-minute penalty on the final lap. It’s possible both will tread a careful line and leave judges to scrutinise others.
A second Ecuadorean, Jordy Jiminez, will surely pounce on any caution. The 30-year-old has been knocking on the door of a first podium place in a major race – and this could be it. He improved his PB by more than a minute to 1:20:08 in Budapest and shaved off another four seconds in Antalya for sixth place.
Although 10 years separates them, Misgana Fekanska is in the same ball park as Jiminez. He is the first senior Ethiopian to make waves on the global race walk scene and a welcome addition at that. Kenya and Ethiopia are giants at distance running, but boast very few to make an impact in big race walking events.
Like his running brethren, Fekanska has the advantage of training at altitude. His national record of 1:20:51 in Antalya for a top-10 finish promises a bright future, especially as he’s not even 20 until July.
Behind this quartet, comes Hungary’s Bence Venyercsan, who clocked 1:21:42 at his national championships in March; Turkey’s Mazlum Demir, who recorded 1:21:46 for 22nd in Antalya, and Spain’s Marc Tur, the 2021 European Cup winner at 50km and fourth at the last Olympics at the same distance. His best this year is 1:21:14 from the Spanish Championships in February.
Probably the loudest cheers on the Rio Maior course will be for bib number 41. João Vieira is seven years older than his race number, but the Portuguese has picked up the venerable mantle of the great Spaniard, Jesus Angel Garcia, who walked his last major race at age 52 in 2021.
Vieira pocketed silver and bronze at two previous World Championships and recorded 1:22:27 for 11th in Podebrady, and should easily make the top 10.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics
