From iaaf.org

Should be a good chance to see them up close in
Leamington....



Last weekend's Chinese Race Walking championships
featured the biggest bonus incentive of the year so
far. The pressure was enormous before the competition
because the prize for the best winner was a 1 kg gold
bar worth around $16,000 USD

The winner of this special prize was determined by
which of the winning results, from the men's 20 km &
50 km and women's 20 km, would have been the highest
ranked performance based on the 2002 world lists.

Chinese walking has been at a generally high level,
but during the last few years their men have not been
very close to the world top. Since Li Zewen was 4th at
Podebrady World Cup in 1997 in 1:18:32, no Chinese
walker has been able to get this high in either 20 km
or 50 km walk. Also times in the National
Championships have been very low.

Li Zewen retired after last season, as did women's
star 31-year-old Wang Yan who won the 2001 National
Games in Asian Record of 1:26:22. 2000 Olympic
Champion Wang Liping is also out this season as she
gave birth to a baby in October 2002, and although she
has started to train again for Athens 2004, she will
not be a contender for top places in World
Championships this year.

The first day (Saturday, 12 April) of the national
championships held at Yangzhou, Jiangsu province,
showed that the gold bar was a very important
incentive. 19-year-old Zhu Hongjun, originally from
Qinghai, went to the lead from the gun in the men’s
20km walk.

Zhu had started the race too fast and at 12 km he
already had two warnings against him for lifting, and
Asian Games Champion Yu Chaohong was lurking just
behind.

However, Zhu, who recently moved to Liaoning province
to join "Ma's Army", was able to take control of his
technique and avoid further problems and
disqualification, which had been his fate in Asian
Games last year.

The famous distance coach Ma Junren has come to the
spotlight again through the coaching of Zhu, who
finally broke away from Yu at 16 km and won the race
in a world leading time of 1:18:43, the fastest by a
Chinese walker since 1997. Asian Games winner Yu was
second in the world's second fastest this year,
1:18:56.

On Monday (15 April), the last day of the walking
championships, Yu Chaohong was in action again, and
after his fast time in 20 km two days earlier, Yu
found himself in another tight battle over 50 km
distance this time. The race was only decided in the
final straight of the sunny course, with Yu edging the
win in 3:44:12, the 3rd fastest time in the world this
season. Yu's time was the fastest by a Chinese since
1996.

The evening of the last day produced the biggest
surprise of the championships. In absence of the older
stars, it was 18-year-old Song Hongjuan who took the
win in 1:27:16. Song won with the home crowd cheering,
although she was only representing Jiangsu for the
first time this season, after moving from Jilin
province in last November.

Song's previous best in the 20 km distance was only
1:40:38, with which she took 40th (!) place in the
2001 national championships. 1:27:16 is also a World
Junior best bettering Natalya Fedoskina's (RUS)
1:27:35 from 1999.

Overall, it was men's 20 km winner Zhu Hongjun who
finally got the gold bar - his winning result of
1:18:43 would have been second in the 2002 world list.
Women's 20 km winner Song Hongjuan was narrowly behind
as her 1:27:16 would've been third in last season
lists.

More of these gold prizes will be awarded in other
Chinese national championships during this season. As
usual, there will be "second" national championships
in the walks in September.




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