The next edition of the European Team Race Walking Championships will take place in Poděbrady on Sunday. Three Olympic champions and medalists from the World and European Championships will be presented at the Spa Colonnade.
35-kilometre race women attract a duel of Olympic champions
The women's 35-kilometer race was the highlight of the last European Race Walking Championships in Poděbrady, when María Pérez from Spain triumphed at the Spa Colonnade in the still valid world record of 2:37:15, starting the season of her life, which she capped off with two gold medals at the World Championships in Budapest. She also took two valuable metals with her from last year's Olympic Games in Paris, where she first finished second in the 20-kilometer race and then won gold in the mixed walking relay. She is doing well in Poděbrady. In the 2021 season, she reached the European Race Walking Team Championships here for silver in the 20-kilometer course.
However, Pérez will not be the only Olympic champion at the start of this competition. The 35-kilometer race was also chosen by Italian Antonella Palmisano, who won the 20-kilometer race at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. Last year, she dominated the same discipline on home soil at the European Championships in Rome. Poděbrady is also a favorite racing destination for her. It was here that she won two gold medals from this championship in 2017 and 2021. Two years ago, she won silver.
At that time, she was defeated by Greek Antigoni Ntrismpioti, for whom this was not her first triumph at the European Team Race Walking Championships. In the 2021 season, however, she did not find a winner on the 35-kilometer course. The two-time European champion from Munich 2022 will thus strive for her third victory at this event in a row. Medal ambitions will certainly also be pursued by the leading woman in the European standings, Eleanora Giorgi from Italy, or the defending silver medalist Raquel Gonzáles, who two years ago was only able to beat Pérez in the 35-kilometer race.
Karlström will challenge the defending champion or Olympic champion
Swedish representative Perseus Karlström is one of the most successful competitors in the history of the European Team Walking Championships. He has two titles in his collection from Alytus, Lithuania, 2019 and Poděbrady 2021. In Poděbrady, he also won bronze in 2017 and silver two years ago as part of this championship. Karlström is registered for both distances. If he decides to start in the 20-meter range, he will have another duel with his conqueror from the previous European Team Walking Championships and defending champion, Italian Francesco Fortunato, whom he subsequently defeated at last year's European Championships in Rome, where Karlström won and Fortunato came away with bronze. The complete line-up of medalists from Rome at the start of the Poděbrady race is completed by the silver-winning Spaniard Paul McGrath. The Czech iron in the fire will be Adam Zajíček.
If Karlström chooses the 35-kilometer race, his most serious competitor should be the Italian Olympic champion from the Tokyo 2021 Games and the world champion from Eugene 2022 Massimo Stano. He finished third in the 20-kilometer race in Poděbrady two years ago and will compete in the longer distance this year. The bronze from two years ago is defended by the former world champion, two-time European champion and holder of four valuable metals from the European Team Walking Championships Miguel Ángel López from Spain. Also traditionally strong in Poděbrady is the German vice-champion of Europe on the 35-kilometer course from 2022, Christopher Linke, who is also the defender of the silver medal from two years ago and the winner of this championship from 2017. He triumphed in the 20-kilometer race then. We will also see two Czech jerseys at the start thanks to Vít Hlaváč and Jaromír Moravěk.
In the women's 20-kilometer race, the current form favors Spaniard Antia Chamosa, who currently leads this year's European standings with a time of 1:27:55.
