Sergey Morozov victorious in La Coruna (© Getty Images)
With his 1:16:43 World record from early June under his belt Sergey Morozov will be the man to watch in the men’s 20km Race Walk in Beijing.
The 20-year-old Russian, winner of the World Youth title in 2005 and the European Junior title in 2007, will nevertheless have a lot to prove despite his chronometrical edge. Having competed only twice this year, once disqualified and one World record set in his home country in Saransk, it is yet to see whether his nerves will be strong enough on the Olympic stage.
Morozov’s team-mates, Valeriy Borchin and veteran Ilya Markov, will undoubtedly offer all the support needed for Russia to claim its first Olympic gold medal since the event was introduced in the Olympic programme back in 1956. After the inaugural win of Leonid Spirin (a Russian running for the then USSR), Russia who is reckoned to be home to Race Walking, has failed to claim gold.
However, theirs will be one of hardest tasks at hand if one considers how many potential medallists have already set their eyes on winning the title in Beijing.
Defending Olympic champion Ivano Brugnetti of Italy and Athens 2004 silver medallist Francisco Javier Fernandez of Spain are top of the list, the latter coming off a convincing success at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Cheboksary.
Challengers will be hailing from all over the globe with 1996 Olympic champion Jefferson Perez of Ecuador making his fourth appearance at the Games after finishing a disappointing fourth in both Sydney and Athens. Perez is also the reigning World champion.
His Mexican neighbour Eder Sanchez, who can boast a season’s best 1:18:34 which was good enough for bronze in Cheboksary, will also be in the leading pack along with Australia’s Luke Adams, IAAF World Race Walking Challenge winner last year and his runner up Erik Tysse of Norway.
Hatem Ghoula will most likely be the only African in the mix, the Tunisian having won his country’s first race walking medal at the event last year in Osaka.
European 50km Race Walking champion Yohan Diniz who represents France’s main chance of a medal may be a strongest walker in the longer event, but he has worked on his speed this summer in order to be competitive at 20km too.
Last but not least, Hao Wang, Yafei Chu, Jimin Dong and Yucheng Han will undoubtedly surpass themselves in an attempt to revert their country’s poor record in the history of the event which has seen Chinese finish among the top 8 only twice before.
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
