Leamington Spa, UK. Dom King prevailed in the senior 20km Race Walk, in what turned out to be a contest of attrition around Victoria Park, Royal Leamington Spa on Saturday (16 April), to take his first Royal Leamington Spa EAA Grand Prix title in a time of 1:29:21 - and become the first man to achieve the English time standard for Race Walking events in next year's Commonwealth Games.

In the senior women’s 20km, behind an easy win for Ireland’s Olive Loughnane (1:36:57), England’s Niobe Menéndez (1:42:47) and twenty year old Johanna Jackson (1:43:07) in her first 20 km race, pushed themselves into consideration for the English Commonwealth Games team for Melbourne next March.

However, the main international action was saved for the second Leamington Spa Junior Cup in which teams from Hungary, Denmark and France did battle with the hosts.

https://worldathletics.org/news/news/international-junior-battle-in-eaa-race-walki

Senior Men 20km

Dominic King contested the early kilometres with his twin Daniel, together with Darrell Stone - reaching 10 km in 43:25. Daniel's race became a solo effort however as at 12 km Daniel fell foul of the judges and 3 km later Stone suffered the same fate. His victory, well clear of Frank Buytaert of Belgium and Mark Williams of Wales, was all the more creditable for walking most of the second half with two cards on the disqualification board.

King was pleased with his race on what he describes as his favourite course and hoped go under 1:27:00 minutes in Miskolc, Hungary at the EAA European Cup of Race Walking on 21 May.

Senior Women 20km

The Irish double Olympian Olive Loughnane eased to a clear win in the women's 20km in 1:36:57. There was a surprise battle for second as 20 year old Johanna Jackson, moved through the field after a cautious first 10km to challenge the experienced World Cup and Commonwealth Games representative Niobe Menéndez.

However Britain's top ranked walker of 2004 showed her competitive spirit by responded to finish 20 seconds ahead of Jackson, who was competing in the red vest of Redcar Race Walking Club. Despite looking remarkably fresh afterwards, Johanna's immediate feelings were, “That was hard - I doubt I'll ever walk again.”

JUNIOR races

The focus was on young athletes ahead of a proposal to host the 2007 European Cup of Race Walking, and the highlight in terms of world level performances came in the second Leamington Spa Junior Cup.

Having walked 44:19 in an unofficial race, 16 year old Nick Ball was confident of achieving the 44:30 national selection requirement for the 10km Race Walk at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Marrakesh, Morocco, in July. Competition came from from the USA's reigning Junior Champion Zac Pollinger and juniors from Hungary, Denmark and France.

After a slow opening kilometre, Ball fixed himself on his planned pace then swiftly overtook the early leader Sandor Racz (HUN) and rapidly increased his lead. Meanwhile, Pollinger hunted down the Casper Hansson (DEN), Racz and attempted to close on Ball until in the last kilometre the English athlete stretched his lead. Ball walked the second 5 km in a one second negative split to win in a time of 44:05 ahead of Pollinger, feeling 'a bit sluggy', in 45:29.

Ball thanked his father, also a race walker, for devising his schedule and being his training partner and, not totally unprompted, his mother for ‘putting up with me’!

The next competition for Pollinger is the Junior Pan-Am Cup in Lima, Peru on 7 May. For Ball, it is against the best European under 20 walkers in Hungary next month.

The result of the Leamington Spa Junior Cup was GBR 390 points, Ireland 380, Denmark 184, FRA 178.

Tim Watt for the IAAF

Results

Men 20 km

1 Dominic King Colchester Harriers 1:29:21
2 Frank Buytaert Belgium  1:35:59
3 Mark Williams Tamworth AC  1:37:19

Women 20 km
1 Olive Loughnane Ireland  1:36:57
2 Niobe Menéndez Steyning AC  1:42:47
3 Johanna Jackson Redcar RWC  1:43:07

U/20 Men 10 km
1 Nick Ball Steyning AC Gt Britain 44:05
2 Zac Pollinger   USA 45:29
3 Sandor Racz  Hungary 46:43

U/20 Women 10 km
1 Laura Reynolds Mohill Ireland 52:03
2 Amy Burtenshaw  Ireland 1:00:26
3 Rachael Woolley Leicester WC Gt Britain 1:04:35