Francisco Fernandez in Sesto San Giovanni (© Lorenzo Sampaolo for the IAAF)
The European Cup of Race Walking in the Russian city of Chuvashia Cheboksary (18 May) was marked by the powerful performance of two home competitors, and the consistent brilliance of Spain’s Francisco Fernandez.
Fernandez, the world’s fastest ever walker over 20km (1:17:22), took the European Cup title yesterday in 1:19:48, technically good with no warnings to his name, over a minute clear of Italy’s Alessandro Gandellini (1:20:52) and Russia’s Vladimir Andreev (1:20:56), who had both received two warnings during a tight tussle for second place.
The 26 year-old Spaniard who previously this year had taken a 1:19:08 second place (Tijuana – 8 March) and a 1:19:25 win (San Giovanni – 1 May) in two legs of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge, has been the world’s most consistent 20km walker over the last two seasons. After a bronze at the European Championships of 1998, a seventh place finish in Sydney and a dnf in the World Championhips in Edmonton, his European gold in Munich last summer (1:18:37) finally confirmed he could not only walk fast but also win a major championship.
Fernandez’s win yesterday was his second in the European Race Walking Cup, having taken first place in 1998 (Dudince – 1:20:31).
The world's greatest ever race walker, Poland's Robert Korzeniowski did not have the best of days with a 'dnf' next to his name, having stopped after 10 km when he got a first warning. At that point he simply decided he was not in the right competitive frame of mind for the race, and so did not continue.
The triple Olympic champion confirmed after the race that he is now planning to miss the World Championships in Paris, and will concentrate all his efforts on preparation for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. But he did offer a glimmer of hope, saying that he would make a final decision about whether or not to compete in Paris at a later date.
The men’s 50 km winner in Cheboksary was German Skurygin – 3:47:50 from Udmurtiya. The 39-years old Russian athlete who took the 1999 World 50km title but was later disqualified for a doping offence, had a consistent season in 2002 taking silver in the IAAF Race Walking Cup in Turin, and finishing fourth in the European championships. Skurygin’s training is even more intensive then it was even before the Seville, and he is considered by his team mates as one of the strongest fighters.
Skurygin said “I am dreaming to repeat my (World Champs) victory in Paris and that it is a real possibility, as my technique and stamina are excellent.”
The second and the third race walkers were also well known Russian athletes, Aleksey Voevodin from Penza – 3:48:43 and Semyon Lovkin – 3:51:36. Stepan Yudin was the 6th with 3:55.26.
The women’s 20 km race the competition was very predictable, with the local favourite and veteran, Yelena Nikolayeva taking the win in her home city in a time of 1:26:22.
Nikolayeva (born in 1966) first won the USSR championships as far back as 1987! Since then she has been second at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and won the Olympic title the next time out in Atlanta.
Second place was taken by Italian Elisabetta Perrone – 1:27:56. She was followed by Spanish leader Maria Vasco –1:28:10 – and Russian Natalia Vedoskina who finished seven seconds later.
Nikolayeva said “I was a little nervous before the race because as I was competing in my home city I particularly wanted to do my best.”
From the gun it was clear that barring disasters Nikolayeva would be first as no one presented strong enough opposition.
At the last World Championships, she was disqualified for lifting and yesterday promised she would make up for that in Paris this summer as her technique has improved.
Overall, the head coach of Russian team Valeriy Kulichenko confirmed that he was more than satisfied with the results of the Cup, and that he believed his walkers will have realistic chances of medals at all three distances - women’s 20km, men’s 20km & 50km - which will be contested at the World Championships in Paris (23-31 August).
"We won the main Cup and a men’s Cup," said Kulichenko, "and at the same time we selected two athletes in each event for the World Championships in Paris. However, we asked some of our leading walkers not to enter the European Cup because we did not need all our best to compete to win the competition. There is an intense rivalry in the team, because everybody wants to walk in Paris to win the money prize."
Initial Russian selections for the World Championships mean that Yelena Nikolayeva and Natalia Fedoskina will contest the women's 20km in Paris. German Skurygin and Aleksey Voevodin are going to participate in men's 50km race, while in the men’s 20km Vladimir Andreyev and Ilya Markov are in the squad. The third Russian walker in each event will be selected at the national championships.
Of course, the two 20km winners from World Championships in Edmonton, Olympiada Ivanova and Roman Rasskazov also have an automatic entry, so Russia will in fact be represented by four race walkers in both the men's and women's 20km.