Chinese Athletes Sweep Podium in World Athletics Race Walking Tour Women’s 20km Event

On May 6, local time in Portugal, the 2022/23 World Athletics Federation Race Walking Tour started the competition for the Rio Mayor station. In the women’s 20km event, Chinese athletes took the top three places. Among them, Yang Jiayu, the champion of the 2017 London World Championships, won the championship with a time of 1 hour, 29 minutes and 10 seconds, and Qie Yangshi, the champion of the 2012 London Olympics, was 1 second behind. Runner-up, 2019 Doha World Championships bronze medalist Yang Liujing also defeated the 2022 Oregon World Championships champion and Peruvian star Kimberly Garcia by 1 second, with a score of 1 hour, 29 minutes and 30 seconds.

The Rio Mayor station is the 5th stop of the 7 highest-level gold-level tours in the race walking tour this season, and it has also attracted many top athletes from all over the world to participate. Yang Jiayu had just won the women’s 10km race walk a week ago in Madrid. The shot was fired at 6:00 p.m. local time in Portugal, but the temperature during the match still reached 21 degrees Celsius, and the slightly hotter temperature also made the The players chose a relatively safe strategy. Halfway through the game, the number of leading groups was still as many as 10.

After entering the last two kilometers, Yang Jiayu and sister Qieyangshi began to exert their strength, and they left the rest of the competitors to lead away alone. The two competed until the final 25-meter sprint stage. In the end, Yang Jiayu won the championship with a 1-second advantage, and Qieyang Shijie came in second with a time of 1 hour, 29 minutes and 11 seconds. Yang Liujing also had the upper hand in the competition for the bronze medal and crossed the line third with a time of 1 hour, 29 minutes and 30 seconds. Another Chinese player, Ma Zhenxia, ​​finished fifth with a time of 1 hour, 29 minutes and 36 seconds.

This is also Yang Jiayu’s third gold medal this season. In addition to the two championships in Rio Mayor and Madrid, the 27-year-old current world record holder for women’s 20km race walk also won the National Race Walk Award in March this year Race (Huangshan Station), and won the qualification for the women’s 20km race walking event at this year’s Budapest World Championships. In addition, she also won a silver medal in the race walking tour (Taicang station) held last month.

In this race, three Chinese players occupied all the positions on the podium of the women’s 20 km event. In the women’s 20km event at the 2019 Doha World Championships, Chinese players have also achieved such achievements. At that time, Liu Hong, who had just come back, won the championship, and sister Qieyang Shi and Yang Liujing won the second and third place respectively.