Erik Tysse of Norway wins the men's 20km in Sesto San Giovanni (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)
There’s one IAAF Race Walking Challenge race Erik Tysse won’t be doing this year.
In fact, when the rest of the field toe the line in Krakow on 24 May for the sixth in the series, the Norwegian champion will be only walking in one place – and that’s’ down the aisle for his wedding to fiancé Kristin.
Needless to say, sister Kjersti Platzer won’t be in Poland either.
However, the second-placers in the 2007 men’s and women’s series don’t believe it will harm their chances for another podium spot, and hopefully another family pay-day at the series finale in September.
Both are in good shape again after a double DNF at Saransk in September.
Platzer reckons the back problems that shackled the 2000 Olympic silver medalist most of last year are now sorted, and her brother hit the magic 200k mark in training for the first time last month.
Before walking down the aisle, he’ll be training on the roads
And so, not even the sound of wedding bells will drown the groom-to-be’s stopwatch.
Tysse will be required to get out on the road for a session prior to his nuptials, although brother-in-law and coach Stephan Platzer has promised an ‘easy 15k’ the following morning.
“I feel I’ve got a better base strength than before, and there’s no reason why I can’t perform well in the series as well as the Olympics,” Tysse said.
But as well as Krakow, the family business won’t be trading in Beijing at race number three either.
On paper, it looks as if the April outing would be the ideal preparation for the Olympics later on in the year, but Kjersti is not so sure.
“It’s costly to get to for a start,” she explained, “and after coming back from high-altitude training in Arizona just before, the body-clock might not be able to cope.
“We make sure our prize money is properly budgeted. We set, say, a £100 limit a day to ourselves, and we never exceed it.
“There’s a lot of talk about all the pollution in Beijing and the need to acclimatise properly, but it will be the same for everybody. I think we in Norway are better off than most.
“One day it could be minus eight degrees, and the next plus six at home, so we’re used to adapting quickly.”
Platzer prepped for final Olympics
This will be Platzer’s last Olympics, and the final year of hard training and competition.
The 14-year-old who made history as the youngest ever European Championships entrant at Stuttgart in 1986 was 36 on 18 January, and plans to come full circle by calling it a day after the Berlin World Championships next year.
She said: “I plan to race next year – and well. But at what level my training will be has yet to be decided. For me, it all started in Germany, so it would be nice to end it there too.
“After that, it will be good to get on with the second part of my life.”
However, Tysse plans to stick around a while, and despite suffering in Saransk at the Challenge final six months ago, plans to walk at least five 2008 Challenge races as well as both the 50k and 20k in the Olympics – with an emphasis on the longer distance.
“I’m well prepared for the conditions in Bejing,” he said. “After all, I survived the humidity in Osaka at last year’s World Championships, and it will be much the same in China.
“The one good thing is the series final is only going to be 10k – and that’s a lot of help at the end of a tough season.”
Actually, the shorter distance will be ideal for the man who takes his belated honeymoon just before the series showdown.
Ten days off proper training, with the newly-weds thoughts on sight-seeing and each other, might be a bonus for the Norwegian’s competitors.
But even then Tysse is thinking ahead.
“I think I’ll be doing a bit of training on holiday, and we also plan to do quite a lot of hiking,” he said.
That’s one way of making sure your wife stays fit and healthy. Welcome to Team Platzer, Kristin.
Paul Warburton for the IAAF