Look no further than the form guide in the women’s 20km at the 26th IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Taicang on Sunday (4).<o:p></o:p>The Chinese city, 60km north west of Shanghai, is no stranger to top class walking. Each year for the past 10, it has played host to an IAAF Race Walking Challenge meeting in the first week of May, and now it has the opportunity to embrace a far wider stage with 35 IAAF Member Federations having entered athletes in this race but the 2km loop will be thronged with home fans who only have eyes for Liu Hong, and with some justification.<o:p></o:p>The 26-year-old is the fastest this year and broke the Asian record on the same course in 2012 with 1:25:46. <o:p></o:p>Unlike a fair number of her compatriots in the past, Liu also performs at her very best on a global stage.<o:p></o:p>Two IAAF World Championships bronze medals in 2009 and 2013, and a silver in 2011, testify to that. She has yet to break the tape in a major global race, although she will be hard pressed to get a better chance than this.<o:p></o:p>First, she won at the IAAF Race Walking Challenge meeting in Lugano, Switzerland, on 16 March in 1:27:25, but what was really impressive was that she hit overdrive with a second half 43:13.<o:p></o:p>Liu rarely troubles the judges with a faultless style despite the ability to accelerate and, judging by her usual poker face, should easily cope with the expectant pressure form the home crowd. <o:p></o:p>Right behind her, just four seconds in arrears, in Lugano was the relative newcomer Eleonora Giorgi.<o:p></o:p>The Italian economics student was the last to drop off Liu’s coat tails and she posted a PB by more than two minutes – that’s about 450 metres quicker than previously.<o:p></o:p>It has been 12 years since an Italian senior won at the Cup, but Giorgi now has the confidence to stick with the leaders in Taicang, and views the event as important to her 2014 season as the European Championships in August. <o:p></o:p>No prizes for guessing which country has the next best three marks.Sochi provides Russian form guideOne used to look no further in World Cup year than the Russian Winter Championships in Sochi for the leading performances, but even though Anisya Kirdyapkina (1:28:05) Vera Sokolova (1:28:32) and Marina Pandakova (1:28:48) trail this time, the first two are no strangers to the world stage.<o:p></o:p>Kirdyapkina, wife of Olympic and former World Championship gold medallist Sergey, is a multiple world and European medallist, and was deprived of the then world record by a single second at the Russian Winter Championships in 2011.<o:p></o:p>The winner by a stride that day, with the race also in Sochi, was Sokolova, who was one of the few to double as a junior winner at the World Cup. The first victory was as long as 10 years ago in Naumberg, Germany, and it was followed by her second victory in La Coruna.<o:p></o:p>It is hard to see beyond these five for the individual medals or, indeed, when it come to the team prize, China or Russia.<o:p></o:p>Liu is backed by three team-mates with times ranking them in the world top 12 for 2014 but there should also be strong challenges from Spain with Julia Takacs spearheading their hopes, and previous World Cup medallists Portugal. Poland is yet to perform on a world stage but have in Agnieszka Dygacz someone with a best of 1:29:08 that should see them add to the throng at the front.<o:p></o:p>South American hopes will rest on Colombia’s Sandra Arenas, who snatched the junior women’s 10km gold medal from under the noses of her Russian hosts in Saransk two years ago.<o:p></o:p>This time, the rest will see her coming but there might not be much they can do about it if she finds the same determination and form that saw her win the South American track 20,000m title in March, when she clocked an impressive 1:31:46.9.<o:p></o:p>A winning mentality goes a long way when nerves of steel are required to overcome heat and other factors that leave mere mortals scrapping for the minor places further back down the road.<o:p></o:p>Paul Warburton for the IAAF<o:p></o:p>

Look no further than the form guide in the women’s 20km at the 26th IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Taicang on Sunday (4).

Senior women's race preview – IAAF World Race Walking Cup Taicang 2014

After 18 years the National Championships returned to the Spanish capital on 27-28 July, where the most remarkable performances came from European 1500m bronze medallist David Bustos, rising sprint talent Bruno Hortelano and Julia Takacs, who broke the Spanish 10,000m Race Walk record with a world-leading 42:37.74.Bustos retains in styleAs has become a long-standing tradition, the men’s 1500m was one of the most highly-anticipated events of the weekend, despite the fact that none of the big contenders had this season achieved the ‘A’ qualifying standard of 3:35.00 for the IAAF World Championships in Moscow in two weeks’ time.For the first time at a major championship in more than 20 years, there will be just one Spaniard in the men’s 1500m as this year’s fastest men – Bustos, 2010 European champion Arturo Casado and Adel Mechaal – have each run only the ‘B’ standard.It was Jose Manuel Cortes who made the early pace in the 1500m final but he set a quite moderate rhythm with a split of 1:02:30 for the opening 400m. Casado then moved to the front to pass through 800m in an even slower 2:07.19. The 30-year-old continued to lead at the bell while Bustos ran dangerously boxed in the middle of the still packed group.Midway through the final bend, Bustos finally managed to move on to Casado’s shoulder then overtook him with ease on the home straight, winning in 3:47.11 after a closing 300m of 39.6. While Casado had to settle for silver on this occasion (3:47.39), his training mate and Alcobendas-born Victor Corrales landed bronze in front of his home crowd, timed at 3:47.49.“This year my only focus is the World Championships and so I’m not yet at my 100% which I hope to reach in the coming two weeks,” said Bustos. “It was a risky tactic as I could have been out of the team since only the gold medal was enough to gain berth for Moscow but I was confident of my sprint finish and luckily it paid off.”Lopez prevails over MarcoSpanish 800m record-holder Kevin Lopez stamped his authority ahead of his training mate Luis Alberto Marco, the 2009 European indoor silver medallist.The 23-year-old Lopez took command of the race before the bell which was reached in a slow 54.72. Fresh from a 1:43.93 clocking in Monaco which puts him at ninth on this year’s world list, Lopez maintained his lead until the finish line to win in 1:47.96, comfortably ahead of Marco, timed at 1:48.42.“This year I feel stronger than last season when I set a Spanish record of 1:43.74,” said Lopez. “It’s true that I’m inside the top-ten on the season’s lists, but it will be really complicated to make the final in Moscow even in the absence of David Rudisha, as there are a large contingent of athletes in the 1:43-1:44 range. I would pick Ethiopia’s Mohamed Amman for gold and Nick Symmonds of the US for silver but I still leave a question mark for the bronze (laughs).”Long Jump star Caceres opts for the 100mEuropean under-23 Long Jump champion Eusebio Caceres decided to contest the 100m on this occasion and the 21-year-old took bronze in a season’s best of 10.43. The event was won by Angel David Rodríguez in 10.26 while the US-based Bruno Hortelano finished runner-up in 10.43.“This year my primary goal was the European Under-23 Championships; Moscow will be a bonus for me,” said Caceres, who sits third on this year’s world lists with 8.37m. “I’d like to enjoy the Worlds, I feel no pressure, it will come next year onwards. My favourite for gold is Russia’s Aleksandr Menkov; he will perform at home and has a great consistency over 8.30m.”Still 21, Hortelano can arguably be tipped as one of the stars of the weekend. In addition to his 100m silver, he landed the 200m title to equal his career best of 20.58, beating Sergio Ruiz, who earlier this year broke the Spanish record with 20.51.“I’m very satisfied with my tally this weekend. I now look forward to competing at the Worlds at both the 200m and the 4x100m Relays,” said Hortelano, who spends most of the time in the US where he is a fourth-year Biological Engineering student at Cornell University.“How fast I can run the 200m? That’s impossible to predict. After Moscow, I’ll return to the US to complete my degree as I only have one year left but it’s still early days to know what I will do afterwards. Anyway, I have a clear target which is the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.”The women’s 10,000m Race Walk, which was held at 11pm, witnessed the only Spanish record of the weekend. The Hungarian-born Julia Takacs smashed her PB by more than a minute to win in 42:32.74.The 24-year-old, who took silver at the 2011 European Under-23 Championships, now moves to ninth on the world all-time list in the event, having bettered Beatriz Pascual’s national record by eight seconds.The lead changed several times in a close Discus contest. After opening with 60.88m, Spanish record-holder Mario Pestano was overtaken by Olympic finalist Frank Casanas with his second-round throw of 63.67m. But in the fourth round Pestano responded with 63.87m to beat his domestic rival by just 20 centimetres. Elsewhere, European champion Ruth Beitia won the High Jump with 1.93m, while Auri Lorena Bokesa smashed through the 52-second barrier for the first time, winning the women’s 400m in 51.77.Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF

Bustos, Hortelano and Takacs shine at Spanish Championships

After 18 years the National Championships returned to the Spanish capital on 27-28 July, where the most remarkable performances came from European 1500m bronze medallist David Bustos, rising sprint talent Bruno Hortelano and Julia Takacs, who broke the Spanish 10,000m Race Walk record with a world-leading 42:37.74.

Australia’s double Olympic Games 50km Race Walk silver medallist Jarred Tallent and Portugal’s Ines Henriques captured 20km victories in 1:21:21 and 1:29:30 at the 27th Gran Premio Cantones de Marcha, the Spanish leg in 2013 IAAF Race Walking Challenge, on Saturday (1).On a cloudy day that was ideal for endurance events, with the thermometer reading around 14 degrees Celsius during the races, Tallent and Henriques both made decisive moves at similar points in their races, before pulling away over the final 5km to win by the handsome margins of 24 and 17 seconds respectively. The victories put Tallent and Henriques into the lead in this year’s IAAF Race Walking Challenge with just two races left on the calendar. Tallent fifth time luckyOver the 1km flat circuit on Spain’s Atlantic coast in the north of the country, the men’s contest opened at a modest pace as the first kilometre was covered in 4:22. By 5km, 17 walkers were still in the leading group which passed through that checkpoint in 21:13.However, the rhythm became increasingly faster and the second 5km section took just 20:34, with 15 men passing the halfway point together in 41:47.Among the pack were pre-race favourites Tallent, Vieira and Colombia’s 2011 World Championships bronze medallist Luis Fernando Lopez, who all took turns at the front.The pace continued to get faster over the third quarter of the race but just after crossing the 15km point in 1:01:47, the 28-year-old Tallent broke away from the leading pack and made his bid for glory with a 3:49 16th kilometre. Behind him, Vieira, Lopez and Tallent’s Australian compatriot Dane Bird-Smith started what was to be the battle for the minor medals, although the latter started to lose ground at around 17km.Tallent’s final 5km section was particularly strong with a swift 19:29 split, which proved to be simply too fast for his pursuers to match before he crossed the line in 1:21:21.This was Tallent’s first success in La Coruna, a city which has become one of the iconic venues around the world for walking. In his four previous outings, the Australian had not done better than his fifth place back in 2010.“I had competed here several times here but I hadn’t managed to win yet in La Coruna. I decided to save my energies for the last five kilometres and my tactics paid off,” commented Tallent."I'm so thrilled to be back on top of the podium. All the hard work we put in the last month in St Moritz has really paid off. To race so well over the shorter 20km distance gives me huge confidence that my World Championship aspirations are on track."&nbsp;Tallent confirmed that: “Unlike last year at the London Olympics, I’ll solely focus on my strongest event in Moscow, the 50km Walk. Having been twice Olympic silver medallist in Beijing and London, plus also World bronze in Daegu, the only medal lacking at home is gold, and so I’ll go for it in Moscow”. The Australian has just spent three-and-a-half weeks at altitude in Saint Moritz and now returns there for another four weeks.Vieira, now 37, got rid of Lopez on the penultimate lap to finish second in 1:21:45 with the South American, who turns 34 on Monday, third in 1:21:51.The battle to be the first Spaniard home was won by the2003 European Athletics Junior Championships 10,000m bronze medallist Francisco Arcilla, who finished sixth with a career best of 1:22:23.Henriques in a class of her own, Gonzalez surprises In contrast to men’s event, the women’s race witnessed a good pace from the gun by the leading pack.The 5km point was reached in 22:27, with six women in the leading group comprising the Spanish trio of Raquel Gonzalez, Beatriz Pascual and Julia Takacs, the Portuguese pair of Ines Henriques and Vera Santos plus Czech Republic’s Lucie Pelantova of the Czech Republic, the latter being the first to lose ground shortly afterwards.Halfway was reached in 44:57 with the surprise 23-year-old Gonzalez making most of the pace. Firstly Santos and then Pascual began to fade after a 4:24 12th kilometre.Henriques found another gear at 16km to leave Gonzalez and Takacs behind and the Portuguese walker added to her advantage over the closing kilometres to build a 17-second margin by the end, crossing the line in 1:29:30 to secure her second victory at this season’s IAAF Race Walking Challenge after her early success in Chihuahua.The 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships silver medallist Takacs stopped the clock at 1:29.47 while Gonzalez was rewarded for her hard work and audacity in the first half of the race with a huge best of 1:30:11 in third place.“It’s so emotional for me to win here as I consider La Coruña as a Mecca for race walking events. In addition to my win, I’m also very satisfied as I walked pretty good technically,” said a delighted Henriques.“I’ll now take an easy week before spending four weeks in Spain at altitude in Sierra Nevada and Navacerrada. Possibly, I’ll next compete at the Portuguese champs over 10km before travelling to Moscow where my target is a top six spot. It won’t be an easy task as there will be several strong squads such as the Russians and the Chinese but also the Spaniards and my compatriots,” added the 33-year-old winner.Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF

Tallent and Henriques take the crowns in La Coruna - IAAF Race Walking Challenge 

Tallent and Henriques crowned La Coruna champions - IAAF Race Walking Challenge 

Australia’s double Olympic Games 50km Race Walk silver medallist Jarred Tallent and Portugal’s Ines Henriques captured 20km victories in 1:21:21 and 1:29:30 at the 27th Gran Premio Cantones de Marcha, the Spanish leg in 2013 IAAF Race Walking Challenge, on Saturday (1).