Chinese look to win Walking Challenge Final on home soil
The 2010 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Walking Challenge Final is set to start this Saturday in Beijing. Chinese men are looking to win both the final event and the season-long Challenge itself on home soil. Vera Santos of Portugal
has a good lead on the women’s side.
The events throughout the season are either 10km, 20km, or 50km, with the final being 10km in length. Only the top three results count towards the participant’s point totals going into the final.
Yafei Zhu of China leads in the standings with 40 points as they head into Saturday’s final. Of his total, 12 were earned by winning the La Coruna, Spain meeting, in which he set a season-best time of 1:21:11, and another 16 points were awarded for his second
place finish at the World Cup in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Zhu’s countryman Wang Hao, who won silver at the World Championships in Berlin, took first in the World Cup and sits in fourth place with 28 points. He earned 20 points for that finish, and another eight for a third place finish in Spain.
The final event is a B event and as such will award 12 points to the victor, 10 to second, 8 to third, 7 to fourth, down to 1 point for the sixth place finisher. A top-two finish for Zhu will guarantee him a first place finish in the standings.
The third place finisher in the World Cup, Erik Tysse of Norway, is second in the standings with 34 points, and in third is Matej Toth of Slovak Republic with 30 points. Tied for fourth are Wang and Luis Lopez of Colombia with 28 points. If Zhu fails to
perform well, any of these competitors could win the final race, and finish first in the standings.
Jared Tallent of Australia, who won the bronze medal in the 20km walk and silver in the 50km walk at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, is another strong competitor looking to win the race, and the $30,000 prize that goes along with it.
Behind Tallent in seventh place is last year’s Walking Challenge winner, Eder Sanchez of Mexico.
On the women’s side, Vera Santos of Portugal sits atop the standings with 40 points. Behind her in second with 30 points is Melanie Seeger of Germany. Seeger has already finished in second place behind Santos in three events, including the World Cup race
in Mexico. Ines Henriques of Portugal sits in third with 25 points. In fourth place heading into the final is another athlete hoping that home soil will give her an advantage, Yanfei Li of China.
Last year Santos went into the final with 35 points, second behind Norwegian Kjersti Platzer’s 48 points, but a seventh place finish took her well out of competition for a top spot in the final standings. Baring a repeat performance Santos will finish considerably
better than she did a year ago.
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