Brazil was close to surpassing, on the afternoon of this Thursday (6) in Sapporo, its record for medals in the same edition of the Olympic Games. Erica Sena was very close to securing the bronze medal, less than a kilometer from the final line of the 20km race march, but she was punished and was left without a medal in the Tokyo Olympics.
In gait, athletes need to move with their legs straight and always keeping one foot on the ground. In short, they cannot run. But the margin between fast marching and running is small and, therefore, each athlete can take up to two punishments for these infractions, yellow cards, in the same race.
Erica was very close to securing the bronze medal at the start of the last of 20 laps of 1 kilometer on a circuit set up in the center of Sapporo, in northern Japan, where the walking and athletics tests were transferred to escape the heat and the Tokyo humidity.
Italian Antonella Palmisano was already running ahead, with no chance of being reached, but the second placed, Colombian Sandra Lorena Arenas, was a few meters ahead of the Brazilian, and losing performance. Sandra and Erica were both already with two punishments, knowing the risk of running and being warned.
But the Brazilian ended up punished with a third yellow card, which forced a pit-stop, in which the athlete had to stay for two minutes on the side of the competition area. Although it was given a little earlier, probably at the entrance to the last lap, Erica only received the card at the last corner.
With that time out, she not only lost the bronze medal that was practically assured, but also dropped to 11th place. In the TV images, it was possible to see the desolate Brazilian woman. Her slack for the then fourth place, the Chinese Hong Liu, was so big, that Liu came third within 20 seconds of Sandra, with whom Erica was directly fighting for position.
italian gets the victory
Italy was once again surprising in the 20km athletic march and, now among women, it won another gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Antonella Palmisano completed the race in 1h29min12s and repeated the dose for the Europeans in Sapporo.
In a slightly milder climate than on Thursday (5), the day of the men’s competition, the race started at a faster pace. And the Italian soon tried to be in the main squad, tangled up between the Chinese Qieyang Shije, Liu Hang and Yang Jiayu, and the Colombian Sandra Arenas.
With 4km remaining on the course, Palmisano opened up distance and forced Yang, Arenas and Erica to step up, which placed the Brazilian in fifth place and gave her a punishment.
At the end of the last lap, however, a surprise. Yang and Erica took their third punishments and stopped at the stop and go for two minutes, losing their medal chances. The podium ended with Colombian Sandra Arenas winning silver, and Chinese Liu Hong inheriting the bronze medal in the last meters.
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