The Swede Perseus Karlstroen and the Chinese Shenjie Qieyang will seek to revalidate the 2022 triumph on the Gran Vía
MADRID, 29 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish Diego García wants to be a prophet in the second edition of the Finetwork Madrid Marcha International Grand Prix, which will be held this Sunday over 10 kilometers on Madrid’s Gran Vía and in which the Swede Perseus Karlstroen and the Chinese Shenjie Qieyang will try to repeat the triumph of 2022.
The test, integrated into the World Athletics Race Walking Tour circuit with the highest category, ‘Gold’, promoted by Diego García, technical director, and organized by the company G2O Publisport, will bring together a line-up of walkers who have won 12 medals in the World Cup Eugene (United States) and the European Championship in Munich. In addition, three of the first six classified in the 20K of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will march along the Gran Vía.
A quarter of this record is accumulated by last year’s winner, the Swede Perseus Karlström, with two World Cup bronzes in 20 and 35K. Just 48 hours before his 33rd birthday, Karlstroem will try to bring up his birthday in Madrid in a season that began in Australia.
For his part, Diego García Carrera, bronze in the 20 kilometers of the European Championship in Munich just behind Karlstroem, will try to take revenge on last year in which he was second by only seven seconds compared to the Swede. Silver in the 35K National in Cieza and gold in the recent Spanish University championship over 10,000 meters ahead of his executioner in the Murcian town, Álvaro Martín, is the favorite for victory.
Other candidates are the Brazilian Caio Bonfim, 32 years old and bronze in the 2017 World Cup, the Chinese Qian Haifeng, 22 years old, and Wang Zhaozhao, 23, the Ecuadorian David Hurtado and the Italian Massimo Stano, who last year added the 35K World Cup title to his Olympic gold over 20K.
The transalpine star lost his father at the beginning of the year and has not yet made his debut in 2023. His compatriot Francesco Fortunato, the German Christopher Linke and the Spanish Marc Tur, fourth in Tokyo 2020 after being passed in the last 150 meters, will also compete for the podium by Canadian Evan Dunfee.
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The women will compete together with the men, starting at 10:30 am, on a 1,000-meter circuit that they will do ten laps. The Chinese Jiayu Yang, with 1h23:49, second best of all times, Ma Zhexia and Li Maocuo; the Mexican Alegna González, and the Italian Antonella Palmisano, 20K Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo, will try to avoid Shenjie Qieyang’s double.
Palmisano will compete for the first time 20 months later, since she had not done so since the Games after undergoing surgery in September 2022 on her hip and subsequent inflammation of the sciatic nerve in her left knee.
On the Spanish side, Laura García-Caro, third in 2022, will debut in 2023, and Raquel González, 35K silver in Munich and recently named best athlete of 2022 by the RFEA, will also fight for a place in the top five.