World Junior 10k Racewalk, photo by Gary Morgan
Our race walk pieces were written by Gary Morgan, associate editor of Michigan Runner and 1988 Olympic 20,000m RW team member for USA. Gary Morgan is also known as Mr. Ubiquitous and for his 2012 attempted climb and fast return down Mt. Hood. We are glad our friend is okay and pacing over two dozen half marathons and marathons this year across the U.S. On Sunday, Gary Morgan is running the Eugene Marathon and writing about it for Michigan Runner.
Friday, August 25
It was an exciting World Junior Men’s 10,000 meter walk this morning at Hayward Field. Daisuke Matsunanga of Japan took the lead from the start and never looked back as he set a new Championship record of 39:27 breaking the old record of 39:35.
The race was on for the silver and bronze as a large pack of ten were all together until a group of six . By eight kilometers, it was down to four contenders. Breaking away from a pack of four in the last one and half kilometers to go, Diego Garcia broke away and stayed there to win the silver even though Braulio Pintatado of Ecuador was pushing hard to catch him. He finished third with Paulo Yurivilca of Peru finishing just ten meters behind him in fourth.
After the race officials caught up with Braulio Pintatado and told him he was DQ’d on the last lap. Paulo Yurivilca from Peru moved up to the bronze medal spot.
Yuga Yamashita of Japan finished fourth, great showing by the Japanese team as they are improving in the walks.
Nikolay Markov finished fifth and team mate Maxim Krasnov was disqualified.
No medals, men or women here for Russia in the walks. The stranglehold they have had on this event is starting to end.
Like most events in track and field, effective and aggressive drug testing is evening the playing field.
