German Melanie Seeger after her win in Rio Maior (© loc)
The 2007 IAAF Race Walking Challenge comes to Europe this weekend for its first of a series of one-day events, beginning with Rio Maior, Portugal, on Saturday (14). Held in a sportive town 80 km distance from Lisbon, it is the hometown of the most popular and successful of Portuguese walkers - Susana Feitor, bronze medallist in 2005 IAAF World Championships; João Vieira, bronze medallist at the 1998 European Championships; Vera Santos, 2006 European Championships bronze medallist; 2003 European under-23 Champion, Sérgio Vieira (1:20:58 pb) who is also João’s twin brother; and Inês Henriques (1:30.28 pb), among others.
This year’s event, contested over a 20 kilometre distance, promises a strong list of competitors.
Hometown girl Feitor vs. defending champion Seeger – Women’s race
Starting with the most popular race walk, the women, where the local heroine Susana Feitor in the front line, will attempt her eighth victory in the Rio Maior Grand Prix, among two Olympic medallists: the Australian Jane Saville, bronze in 2004 (third in Naucaplan) and the Norwegian Kjersti Platzer, silver medallist at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
Platzer has a win in this this year's Challenge, in Naucalpan, Mexico, and will face other great walkers, such as the European champion Ryta Turava from Belarus who also took silver at the 2005 World Championships, and the bronze medallist in same event, Italian Elisa Rigaudo.
But among the main competitors are others, including German Melanie Seeger, the surprise winner last year in Rio Maior ahead of the Romanian Claudia Stef, who will return as well; her country woman Sabine Zimmer (third in 2003 Under-23 European Championship); and the Russian Tatyana Gudkova, who was fourth at the 2003 World Championships. Sylwia Korzeniowska of Poland is also among the leading starters in the field of 29 walkers.
In the last four years Elisabetta Perrone (2003), Elisa Rigaudo (2004), Ryta Turava (2005) and Melanie Seeger (2006) dominated the event.
Men’s race wide open
The men’s field features a pair of racers who have competed thus far in the 2007 IAAF Race Walking Challenge: the Australians Luke Adams, fifth in Shenzhen, and Jared Tallent, seventh at the same event. But, with the absence of Francisco Fernandez, winner in the last two years, the favourite for this year first prize is the Italian Ivano Brugneti, the reigning Olympic champion and the 1999 World Champion in the 50 km Race Walk.
They wil be joined in the front line by other great walkers, including Russian Ilya Markov, the 1996 Olympic silver medallist who won in Rio Maior in 1999 and finished second last year; the Italian Alex Schwazer, the bronze medallist at the 2005 World Championships; Spaniard Juan Manuel Molina, the bronze medallist at the 2003 World Championships; his countryman Benjamin Sanchez, the 2005 European Under-23 runner-up in 2005; Jose Alejandro Camil, who was tenth at last year’s World Cup at 50 km; and the German Andre Höhne, who was fourth at the 2005 World Championships.
This event begins at 17:00 local time with the women’s race, followed by the men a half hour later. The two kilometre loop course is located in the town centre, where several thousand spectators regularly turn out.
António Manuel Fernandes for the IAAF