Santee in California (USA) hosted the 2022 edition of the 35km USA Championships.

35km women

The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” blared on loudspeakers as Chula Vista’s Miranda Melville rolled to the finish line Sunday in Santee. She didn’t disappoint.

In her debut race walk at the 35-kilometer (21.75 miles) distance, the 32-year-old Rio* Olympian set an American record — clocking 3 hours, 18 seconds.

“I was hoping to dip under 3 hours I died in that last 5K. But it’s still a record for now, and records are meant to be broken.”

The previous U.S. best in the once rarely contested distance was 3:00:43 by Katie Burnett in 2017. But the Olympics and world championships are moving to a single distance of 35Km  forgetting the 50Km.

Melville’s split times:

- 8 laps of 1.250 (10km): 50:52

- 16 laps of 1.250 (20km): 1:40:59 (50:17)

- 24 laps of 1.250 (30km): 2:39:50 (59:00)

- last 5km in 29:19

Victory to Miranda Melville (USA) in 3:00:18

Second place to Stephanie Casey (USA) in 3:01:15

Third place to Maria Michta-Coffey (USA) in 3:07:31

35km men

Getting more comfortable at 35K is El Cajon native Nick Christie, who won the men’s title Sunday morning in 2:48:48 — averaging 7:46 per mile — about 10 minutes off his own pending American record of 2:38:16 set a month ago in Dublin, Ireland.

His split times:

- 8 laps of 1.250 (10km): 47:16

- 16 laps of 1.250 (20km): 1:32:29 (45:19)

- 24 laps of 1.250 (30km): 2:39:50 (49:10)

- last 5km in 27:09

Victory to Nick Christie (USA) in 2:48:48

Second place to Daniel Nehnevaj (USA) in 2:59:21 in his own 35Km debut

Third place to Bricyn Healey (USA) in 3:05:13

After the race Christie kneeled briefly, wiped his face and proceeded to give curbside interviews next to his race-walk champion girlfriend Robyn Stevens who dropped out of Sunday’s race after an hour and 50 minutes with a glute problem. 

“It’s hard to race by yourself,” Christie said. “So when I was in Ireland a month ago, I had a good group. It’s totally different when you’re in front the whole time by yourself.”

Risultati ufficiali - Official results