Fawkner Park in Melbourne was the venue for our VRWC races on Sunday morning, with the meet also hosting the Victorian 20km and Victorian Masters 20km Championships, along with an Athletics Australia Invitational 20km walk. Conditions were overcast with temperatures in the low twenties so pretty good overall.

20km men

The athletes started at 8:30 am (together with the women), with Rhydian Cowley (AUS) immediately taking the lead, followed as usual by Declan Tingay (AUS) and Kyle Swan (AUS). Rhydian soon cleared away, and had no difficulty going on to win with an excellent 1:21:49, yet another quality performance by the top Australian walker of the moment.

Quentin Rew (NZL) is returning to good form (it looks like he is timing things nicely to return to top form for the 50km Olympic in early August) and finished second in 1:24:37.

Kyle Swan finished third in 1:25:37 while Declan Tingay faded to finish in fourth place in 1:27:59, obviously tired of a long summer of racing.

Mitch Baker (AUS) was another one who was well up early but he paid the price and eventually retired.

It's been a very long summer for Australia's elite walkers, with race after race and many training retreats in between, so it's no surprise that overall times have been a bit low.

20km women

There are only had three women in attendance, but they were our top three so a high quality race ensued. 

Jemima Montag (AUS) walked with 19 year old Rebecca Henderson (AUS) for the entire race, Jemima winning overall with 1:31:51

Second place to Rebecca Henderson doing a 19sec PB to finish with 1:31:53. The previous personal best was 1:32:12 recently obtained (27.3.2021) on the same circuit in Melbourne.

Katie Hayward (AUS) was not far behind for most of the race but slowed a bit in the last couple of laps to finish with 1:36:16.

Thanks to Tim Erickson - AUS

(Photos by Terry Swan - AUS)

Risultati ufficiali - Official results