A RUSSIAN PAIR had won the historic “sprint racewalking” Daily Double at the Edmonton World Championships of ’01 but no nation’s speediest male and female pedestrians had been able to take home both 20K crowns at any Worlds since then.
But what a golden day it proved to be for Spain — as a doubled-down dose of glittering news emanated from Australia, half a world away, as well as Budapest. While Team España was edging England’s Lionesses in the title game of the Women’s World Cup of soccer, Mária Pérez was racewalking away from 46 rivals at the Hungarian capital’s Heroes’ Square course.
Coming a day after Álvaro Martín’s men’s triumph over the same 20-lap single-K loop, it surely generated triple delight everywhere from Barcelona to La Coruña, Algeciras to Bilbao, and even more in Pérez’s historic hometown of Granada.
Ah yes, that Granada. As so many have belted out these famed lyrics, the world champion’s home is “the land of dreams for me.” Yes, and “made of fantasy.” Not only did Pérez (clocked in 1:26.51) beat back the challenges of Australia’s Jemima Montag (walker-up in 1:27.16) and Italy’s ’21 Olympic champion Antonella Palmisano (3rd in 1:27:26) but she kept Peru’s defending champ, Kimberly García (1:27.32, just strides back of Palmisano) off the podium altogether.
Racewalking, of course, is a technique event. Get it right and you’re on your way. Get it wrong and you wind up on the DQ board. That was Pérez’s fate last year in Oregon. But she’s surely resilient. Not only did she bounce back from that mishap but she also set a 35K World Record in May.
“Last night, I felt so nervous I could not sleep,” she confided afterward. She called the team doctor, who provided the medication sending her off to dreamland. And then, starting at 07:15 her dream came true.
She floored it early, but couldn’t drop her top pursuers until the 16th loop. Seven were still close at 5K (21:44), 10K (43:43) and 15K (1:06:04). Shrugging off a hamstring cramp, she dropped Montag & Co. with a 4:06 16th K, and blazed on with 4:09, 4:05 and 4:06 circuits. By 19K, she was clear of all.
She could coast home with a 4:21.
“I cannot put in words how important it is to win this first global gold medal,” she gushed.
For Montag, a University of Melbourne biomedical science degree candidate, there was special poignancy in winning a medal in this part of the world. Her grandmother had miraculously survived the Holocaust and she wore grandma’s bracelet: “I think she is on my arm during the race. I wanted to pay a tribute to her, and to thank her for the opportunity I can be here.”
The bronze was not in the cards for Palmisano, after her Olympic gold: “It was just not in me today. I didn’t have it in my legs.”
Right back of García were Mexico’s Alegna Gonzalez (1:27:36), Ecuador’s Glenda Morejón (1:27:40) and China’s Zhenxia Ma (1:28:30).
No Americans were on the starting line, but three will line up for Thursday’s 35K.
WOMEN’S 20K WALK RESULTS
(August 20; 1000m loop)
1. Mária Pérez (Spa) 1:26:51 (21:44, 21:59 [43:43], 22:21 [66:04], 20:47) (43:43/43:08);
2. Jemima Montag (Aus) 1:27:16 NR (43:43/43:33);
3. Antonella Palmisano (Ita) 1:27:26 (43:43/43:43);
4. Kimberly García (Per) 1:27:32 (43:43/43:49);
5. Alegna Gonzalez (Mex) 1:27:36 (43:43/43:53);
6. Glenda Morejón (Ecu) 1:27:40 (43:53/43:47);
7. Zhenxia Ma (Chn) 1:28:30 (43:44/44:46);
8. Viviane Lyra (Bra) 1:28:36 PR (44:04/44:32);
9. Ana Cabecinha (Por) 1:28:49; 10. Olena Sobchuk (Ukr) 1:28:50 PR; 11. Lyudmyla Olyanovska (Ukr) 1:29:36; 12. Jiayu Yang (Chn) 1:29:40; 13. Erica de Sena (Bra) 1:29:53; 14. Nanako Fujii (Jpn) 1:30:10; 15. Antigóni Drisbióti (Gre) 1:30:19; 16. Clemence Beretta (Fra) 1:30:43; 17. Hong Liu (Chn) 1:30:43; 18. Pauline Stey (Fra) 1:31:20; 19. Hanna Shеvchuk (Ukr) 1:31:44; 20. Eleonora Giorgi (Ita) 1:31:45; 21. Camille Moutard (Fra) 1:32:18; 22. Valentina Trapletti (Ita) 1:32:57; 23. Vitória Oliveira (Por) 1:33:04 PR; 24. Rachelle De Orbeta (PR) 1:33:19;
25. Johana Ordóñez (Ecu) 1:33:58; 26. Gabriela De Sousa Muniz (Bra) 1:33:59; 27. Eliška Martínková (CzR) 1:34:02; 28. Antia Chamosa (Spa) 1:34:20; 29. Saskia Feige (Ger) 1:34:49; 30. Ayane Yanai (Jpn) 1:34:59; 31. María Luz Andia (Per) 1:35:38; 32. Rebecca Henderson (Aus) 1:35:51; 33. Barbara Oláh (Hun) 1:35:55; 34. Viktória Madarász (Hun) 1:36:13; 35. Yukiko Umeno (Jpn) 1:36:52; 36. Sofia Ramos (Mex) 1:37:49; 37. Kiriakí Filtisákou (Gre) 1:37:51; 38. Paula Milena Torres (Ecu) 1:38:03; 39. Angela Castro (Bol) 1:40:01; 40. Valeria Ortuño (Mex) 1:40:53;
… dq—Katarzyna Zdziebło (Pol), Evelin Inga (Per), Olivia Sandery (Aus);… dnf—Meryem Bekmez (Tur), Emily Ngii (Ken), Sandra Arenas (Col), Maritza Rafaela Poncio (Gua).
(leader 5Ks: García 21:44, 43:43; Palmisano 66:04)
