HEEL AND TOE ONLINE The official organ of the Victorian Race Walking Club 2010/2011 Number 21 21 February 2011 VRWC Preferred Supplier of Shoes, clothes and sporting accessories. Address: RUNNERS WORLD, 598 High Street, East Kew, Victoria (Melways 45 G4) Telephone: 03 9817 3503 Hours : Monday to Friday: 9:30am to 5:30pm Saturday: 9:00am to 3:00pm Website: http://www.runnersworld.com.au/ AUSTRALIAN 20KM WALK CHAMPIONSHIPS, CONSTITUTION DOCK, HOBART, SAT 19 FEB 2011 After a day of solid rain, the skies cleared in the final hours leading up to the 6:15PM start time in Hobart last Saturday evening and competitors were faced with quite humid but overall good conditions for these long awaited championships. With all 4 events starting concurrently, over 40 walkers lined up, with a large crowd in attendance. Jared Tallent went straight to the front, completing the first 2km lap in around 7:55, som,e 5 secs in front of Luke Adams, Dane Bird-Smith (U20) and Chris Erickson, then a small break to Adam Rutter and another small break to Nathan Deakes in his comeback race. The large contingent of international walkers then came through together with Brendon Reading and a good group of the Junior men tucked nicely into the group. From then on, it all went pretty much to plan as Jared extended his lead lap by lap, passing the 10km mark in 39:33 and working hard in the second half to win in 1:20:19. This is his 4th win a row in this event and his winning times read very impressively – 1:19:41, 1:19:42, 1:19:15 and 1:20:19. Luke Adams also walked up to form, taking second 1:21:00 and he was never being seriously challenged for the silver. Third place went to Adam Rutter in 1:22:25, his best walk for some time. With the first 3 walkers all under the IAAF A qualifying standard of 1:22:30, they should now have booked themselves trips to this year's IAAF World Champs in South Korea. Chris Erickson held 4th place for 9 of the 10 laps but could not hold off the fast finishing group of internationals, slowing to finish in 1:25:29, just ahead of Nathan Deakes 1:25:38. It was fantastic to see Nathan back in action and walking well once again. Behind them, Ian Rayson 1:26:56 and Brendon Reading 1:27:30 both beat the World University Games standard of 1:28:00 so should have hopefully have done enough to book trips for themselves to China later this year. PBs were hard to come by in the men's 20km event but Rhydian Cowley recorded a 2:19 PB with his time of 1:29:07 and Stuart Kollmorgen recorded a 4:10 PB with his time of 1:34:42 - he has taken 7 mins off his PB since December. Of the internationals, Inaki Gomez (Canada) and Ato Ibanez (Sweden) walked very stong races, storming home to take 4 th and 5th respectively. Jamie Costin (Ireland) was with them when taken off by the chief judge at the 18km mark. When interviewed after the race, Jared responded “I’m pretty happy, it was tough out there in quite unusual Tasmanian humidity so I struggled in the last 10km to be honest. It’s a good start to my season and I’m now looking forward to upcoming races in Mexico and China before building towards the 20km and 50km double in Daegu. I’ve qualified for both events now and came home from Beijing with two medals so that is what I want to see happen at this year's world champs.” The women's 20km race saw Claire Tallent and Jo Jackson (the Commonwealth Games champion) clear out to pass the 10km mark in 46:00, some 15 secs clear of Regan Lamble with Nicole Fagan another 45 secs in arrears. Soon after this, Jo withdrew from the event, leaving the 3 Australian girls in control. From there, the places remained unchanged as Claire recorded her second win in a 1 row with 1:33:38, Regan took second in a big PB time of 1:35:08 and Nicole took third in a huge PB time of 1:35:55. This will guarantee Claire a berth in this year's World Championship team as she already has 3 A qualifiers. Regan was outside the A standard of 1:33:30 so I expect that she will race in the Chinese leg of the IAAF Challenge to try to capture one of the remaining two spots. Nicole Fagan was well under the 1:38:00 qualifying standard for the World University Games so she has probably sealed team selection to that event with her walk on Sunday. NSW walker Beki Lee was not quite so lucky, her 1:38:16 5 th place finish behind Cheryl Webb was just outside the World Uni Games standard. She will have to try to chase selection with further performances. Claire's thoughts after the race: “Jared seems to be showing the way of late and it’s always great to follow him across the line for first shortly after he finishes. Tonight’s time was outside the qualifying mark but with a few others to my name and now the national championship I have earned selection and that’s what I was chasing. Like Jared I will head overseas to compete before coming back to Australia for some serious base training with Deagu in my sights as of now.” Men 20km Road Walk Open Australian Championship 1. Jared Tallent AIS/VIC 1:20:19 2. Luke Adams AIS/NSW 1:21:00 3. Adam Rutter AIS/NSW 1:22:25 4. Inaki Gomez CAN 1:24:38 5. Ato Ibinez SWE 1:24:55 6. Chris Erickson AIS/VIC 1:25:29 7. Nathan Deakes AIS/VIC 1:25:38 8. Perseus Karlström SWE 1:26:20 9. Ian Rayson ACT 1:26:56 10. Brendon Reading ACT 1:27:30 PB 0:03 11. Rhydian Cowley VIC 1:29:07 PB 2:19 12. Stuart Kollmorgen VIC 1:34:42 PB 4:10 13. Mathieu Beurion FRA 1:41:34 Jamie Costin IRE DQ Tom Bosworth ENG DNF Kyle Malone SMW DNF Alex Wright ENG DNF Daniel Coleman TAS DNF Women 20km Road Walk Open Australian Championship 1. Claire Tallent AIS/SA 1:33:38 2. Regan Lamble AIS/VIC 1:35:08 PB 1:32 3. Nicole Fagan NSW 1:35:55 PB 5:40 4. Cheryl Webb AIS/NSW 1:36:55 5. Beki Lee NSW 1:38:16 PB 4:22 6. Caitlin Brunton VIC 2:02:48 PB 0:07 7. Stephanie Stigwood TAS 2:04:28 Tanya Holliday SA DNF Johanna Jackson ENG DNF Zuzanna Malikova SVK DNF Mari Olssen SWE DNF Nathan Deakes, Adam Rutter, Jared Tallent, Luke Adams, Dane Bird-Smith and Chris Erickson all headed out fast 2 Regan Lamble, Claire Tallent, Jo Jackson, Nicole Fagan, Mari Olssen, Rachel Tallent and Beki Lee in action The Junior 10km events were non-championship races but the cream of our young walkers attended. The event was of special significance for the U18 men as it was a chance to put a qualifier on the board for this year's World Youth champs (in the World Youth champs, boys race over 10,000m and girls race over 5000m). It was also a chance for a hitout ahead of State and National track championships next month. The U20 men's event saw Queensland dominate with the first 5 placings. Dane Bird-Smith, our top junior and 5 th at last year's World Junior champs, went out with our top senior men and was rewarded with a big PB and a wonderful time of 40:56. In fact his time was a mere two seconds outside Adam Rutter's Australian U20 10km walk record of 40:54. Brad Aiton recorded yet another World Youth qualifier with a very strong 44:09 (just 9 secs outside his PB). Behind him, the next 5 walkers all walked PBs – Nick Dewar, Jesse Osborne, Brandon Dewar, Nathan Brill (still only 14!) and Harry Bates. We are certainly very strong in this group. Dane 's thoughts on his own performance: I finished the race with an 8:05 last 2 km and that’s amazing pace but unfortunately I’d already lost that little bit too much. I’ll hopefully be able to get a couple of 20 km races under my belt soon and from there who knows where I can go, we’ll just have to see. In the U20 women's event, Rachel Tallent rounded out the Tallent family dominance to win in 48:40, bettering her own personal best by 51 secs. Beth Alexander also walked excellently to take second with 49:48 while English junior Lauren Whelan was third with 51:15. Rachel, who was just one day short of her 18th birthday on Saturday, is setting her sights on the 2012 World Junior championships and looks right on target. She was also interviewed It’s been a great night for the family, we are all rapt with how we’ve walked and that’s exciting. For me heading to the AIS has been amazing, Brent (coach Brent Vallance) and the facilities are fantastic and to take 50 seconds of my PB is just unreal. World juniors in 2012 are where I want to be so I’ll keep working towards that with the Olympics hopefully somewhere in my future, fingers crossed.