Time zone allowing this year the race organized by the Hong Kong Race Walking Association will not be the first race in the world in 2019.

Even if just a little (about thirty minutes) will be preceded as last year by that of Tokyo that will inaugurate the 2019 season.

In the Calendar section, the entry list has already been published. In any case we report in the link at the bottom of this news.

But this year Hong Kong also sees the return to competition of a star of the world race walk: Liu Hong

Let's go back together as she have come to this choice.

Liu Hong gave birth to a child on November 20, 2017. At the end of the pregnancy, Liu Hong weighed 70 kg. and as the Chinese tradition asks, when a woman is pregnant and is giving birth to a baby, she needs to rest as much as possible in the initial phase immediately after the birth

Liu Hong has therefore started making re-training programs six months after the birth, and is in conditions that are far from the ideal. At that time, she still weighed 55 kg, her abdominal muscles relaxed and her strength diminished seriously. Therefore, during the first three months of training, which is also the hottest period in Beijing, she were dedicated to gym workouts and treadmills.

Liu Hong's husband helped her with training, and the children's grandparents lived with them to help them take care of the children.

And at the beginning of June anti-doping controls began.

The official start of specific training in race walking took place in September, when the weight had returned between 50 and 51 kilograms; the initial weekly training was only about 40 kilometers, and then progressively grew.

One of the reasons why Liu Hong chose to return to competitions was that of a chance to race on 50 km.

The increasing attention and publicity that is getting the 50km women has always involved the most of the 20km Olympic Champion, with the goal to get high results in this new event.

The main goal of Liu Hong at least for the 2019 season are the 50km of the World Championships in Doha.

However, China has already several high-level athletes in this event, so for Liu Hong, the main goal is currently to enter the top three places in the selection of Huangshan in March of next year.

From November 2018 Liu Hong together with the family moved to Kunming for four months of specialized training.

Kunming, with an altitude of 1900 meters, is one of the most important high-altitude training bases in China.

Up to now, Liu Hong's weekly training volume has reached 130 - 140 km, although it is only 70% of the previous one, but is greatly improving. Even the weight is back to 49 kg, which is almost the same as when it was at its best.

For a walker who has been away from the races for two years, the first race takes on a very important value.

However, the athlete needs several races to gradually find his sensations.

Here is the choice to participate in the 20km in Hong Kong on January 1, 2019 to test the effect of training. Although there are no other high-level athletes, as the first competition after the resumption of training could get a time around 1:31:00.

So this is the third year that Liu Hong will not train in Saluzzo with Sandro Damilano to follow her daily, but the Italian coach has understood the difficulties resulting from the birth of the child and confirmed his help for the development plans.