On the day of August 15th, the Ukrainian Athletics Championships which took place on the track of the Avangard Stadium in Lutsk, a city in the north-west of the country, were opened by the two walking events.
This year, both races took place over a distance of 5.000m on track
5.000m track walk women
There were nine athletes at the start.
Lyudmila Olyanovska (UKR) has always led the race and after a relatively smooth start (4:26 in the first 1.000m) she accelerated gradually.
At 3.000m her passage was 12:55 (2.000m in 8:29).
Another increase in her pace of the last 2.000m (8:22) and the athlete coached by A. Solomin stopped the clock in 21:17.82 which currently represents the best world time of the 2020 season.
Second place to Olena Sobchuk-Mizerniuk (UKR), not far from Olyanovska, with a time of 21:29.64 personal best of the athlete, but above all second best seasonal world performance behind that of Olyanovska.
Third place to Mariia Sakharuk-Filiuk, in 22: 33.18 also for her personal best despite a penalty of 30" after three red cards.
5.000m track walk men
In the men's field a beautiful race full of emotion and uncertainty about the winner and with 14 athletes at the start.
Up to 3,000m it was Eduard Zabuzhenko (U23 - UKR), who took charge of leading the pack up to about 3,000m.
Immediately after, Oleh Svystun (UKR) opened the hostilities by taking the lead in the race, but for a short time. In fact, shortly after, Nazar Kovalenko (UKR) forced his pace (with a 400m lap in 1:31) and took the lead in the race giving the idea that he would have easily won.
But about 2 laps to go Ihor Hlavan (UKR) take the lead. Regardless of the two red cards against him due to contact problems, Hlavan wins the race in 19:23.88.
Oleg Svystun with a final acceleration overtakes Kovakenko again and was second, in 19:25.92.
Nazar Kovalenko was third in 19:29.40.
In the end, six athletes drop below 20:00.
In addition to the three mentioned:
- 4th place to Viktor Shumik (UKR) in 19:35.01
- 5th place to Ivan Banzeruk (UKR) in 19:39:66
- 6th place to Eduard Zabuzhenko (UKR) in 19:46.50
Perhaps one of the most beautiful and exciting 5.000m track walk of the season.