ITS SHOOTERS, DIVERS, table tennis players and cyclists have kept China atop the gold medal-winners chart at the Paris Games and now 20K racewalker Jiayu Yang has given her nation further golden impetus.
The women’s walk that followed the men’s on the same route in steamy conditions was a virtual walkaway. The 28-year-old champion, 12th-placer at the ’21 Games, may have been 44th of 45 on the alphabetic start list but once the pack reached 5K, she was off on her own.
She’d come to Paris with the 1:26:07 world lead and was 13 seconds quicker here, crossing the line in 1:25:54.
Once Yang broke free, the only real questions were: (a) would she tire? (b) could Spain’s Budapest23 world champion, Mária Pérez, dig down for an incredible finish?
The answers were (a) no, (b) no.
“Tokyo [in fact, the ’21 race was held in Sapporo, well north of the Japanese capital] was very tricky for me, so I worked very hard to come back and get the best results in Paris,” said the Olympic champion.
In the process, she fulfilled a promise made to her father before he passed away in ’15.
“I never mentioned this before,” she said after the big win. “But I promised him I would win gold. Now I have finally done it, I am very proud of myself.”
Pérez would settle for the silver medal in 1:26:19, with the bronze going to Australia’s ultra-consistent Jemima Montag in an Oceania Area Record of 1:26:25.
Said the delighted Montag: “It was hot, it was loud, the crowd was going absolutely crazy. I just kept competing, ‘One more lap, one more lap.’”
After Ecuador’s Daniel Pintado won the men’s race, Peru’s Kimberly García, the ’22 world champion, became the top hope for South America hitting the continental daily double, but that wasn’t about to happen either. She was pushed back to 16th in 1:30:10, while the fourth spot thus went to Colombia’s Lorena Arenas in 1:27:03.
Once again, the most decorated athlete on the starting line (and one of the most decorated in the Games) was China’s 37-year-old Hong Liu. She’d won the ’12 London Olympic silver, and the ’16 Rio gold. The years are rushing by but Liu is still quite competitive with the kids — 21st in 1:31:24.
It just wasn’t defending Oly champion Antonella Palmisano’s day. The Italian great was a DNF by the 12th K.
U.S. leader Robyn Stevens (1:35:54 best this year), back home in California, might have had a legitimate gripe. That 1:35:54 would have beaten 9 walkers in Paris, but she hadn’t made the WA qualifying cut. But there was one American citizen in the race: Puerto Rico’s Rachelle DeOrbeta, 29th in 1:33:33.
This was the seventh edition of the women’s 20K, which has never had a repeat winner.
WOMEN’S 20K WALK RESULTS
(August 01)
(temperature 73-79F/23-26C; humidity 86-67%)
1. Jiayu Yang (Chn) 1:25:54 (21:34, 21:32 [43:06], 21:41 [1:04:47], 21:07) (43:06/42:48);
2. Mária Pérez (Spa) 1:26:19) (43:40/42:39);
3. Jemima Montag (Aus) 1:26:25 NR) (43:39/42:46);
4. Sandra Arenas (Col) 1:27:03 NR) (43:40/43:23);
5. Alegna González (Mex) 1:27:14) (43:39/43:35);
6. Glenda Estefanía Morejón (Ecu) 1:27:37) (43:40/43:57);
7. Laura García-Caro (Spa) 1:28:12) (43:40/44:32);
8. Evelin Inga (Per) 1:28:16) (43:40/44:36);
9. Paula Milena Torres (Ecu) 1:28:48 PR; 10. Cristina Montesinos (Spa) 1:29:11; 11. Zhenxia Ma (Chn) 1:29:15; 12. María Luz Andia (Per) 1:29:24; 13. Erica de Sena (Bra) 1:29:32; 14. Lyudmyla Olyanovska (Ukr) 1:29:55; 15. Clemence Beretta (Fra) 1:29:55; 16. Kimberly García (Per) 1:30:10; 17. Mariia Sakharuk (Ukr) 1:30:12; 18. Viviane Lyra (Bra) 1:30:31; 19. Magaly Bonilla (Ecu) 1:30:33; 20. Olena Sobchuk (Ukr) 1:31:12; 21. Hong Liu (Chn) 1:31:24; 22. Antigóni Drisbióti (Gre) 1:31:33; 23. Eleonora Giorgi (Ita) 1:31:49; 24. Alejandra Ortega (Mex) 1:31:58; 25. Camille Moutard (Fra) 1:31:58;
26. Pauline Stey (Fra) 1:31:59; 27. Eliška Martínková (CzR) 1:32:30; 28. Saskia Feige (Ger) 1:33:23; 29. Rachelle De Orbeta (PR) 1:33:33; 30. Katarzyna Zdziebło (Pol) 1:33:52; 31. Rebecca Henderson (Aus) 1:34:22; 32. Nanako Fujii (Jpn) 1:34:26; 33. Rita Récsei (Hun) 1:34:39; 34. Mária Katerinka Czaková (Svk) 1:34:46; 35. Valentina Trapletti (Ita) 1:35:39; 36. Gabriela De Sousa Muniz (Bra) 1:35:50; 37. Hana Burzalová (Svk) 1:36:12; 38. Vitória Oliveira (Por) 1:36:22; 39. Ilse Guerrero (Mex) 1:37:10; 40. Meryem Bekmez (Tur) 1:38:06; 41. Priyanka Goswami (Ind) 1:39:55; 42. Viktória Madarász (Hun) 1:41:21; 43. Ana Cabecinha (Por) 1:46:30;… dnf—Olivia Sandery (Aus), Antonella Palmisano (Ita).
(5K leader splits: Yang 21:34, Yang 43:06, Yang 1:04:47)
