Women’s20km race walker Liu Hong, who won China’s first gold of the Championships thismorning, explained how she had agreed with silver medallist and team-mateXiuzhi Lu that they wouldn’t speed up at the finish after entering the stadiumtogether.
「Atthe end of the race Lu and I talked,」 said 28-year-old Liu, who finished astride ahead although both walkers were given the time of 1hr 27min 45sec. 「We’reboth from the Chinese team but we don’t train together and don’t know eachother that much.
「Wetalked about whether we should engage in a really fierce competition becauseeach of us wanted this gold. But then my little sister said 『Let’s just enterthe stadium like this』, so there wasn’t a very fierce ending.」
Liu,who set a world record of 1:24.38 in winning the IAAF Race Walking Challenge inLa Coruna in June, added:
「Iwas under a lot of pressure today. I felt the responsibility and the mission.
「ButI have also myself to blame for building this pressure because I broke theworld record this year. And in the women’s race walking there are many greatathletes, record holders who didn’t come to Beijing Championships.
「Sothat is why I put a lot of pressure on myself, I wanted to show I’m capable towin here. Still I felt very confident as my preparation went very well thisseason and I had no injuries. I entered this Championship knowing I was in thevery good shape and I’m very excited to have this gold medal as it was mydream.
「Theinjuries that bothered me at the last World Championships in Moscow and duringlast year’s Race Walking World Cup made me change my training techniques. Alsowe have now the best doctors taking care of us in Chinese team. So this year Iwas able to avoid injuries and that’s why I’m in such a good shape.
「WithLu we were among the strongest walkers in our event, so we started really fastand there were no people following us. So we kept our pace and finished therace with it. In the latter half the res of the field increased the speed andso did we. We had a few warnings. But throughout the race we were our owncompetitors.」
Lu,21, commented: 「It was my first performance at the World Championships and I’mso glad to get silver medal today.」
Bronzemedallist Lyudmyla Olyanovska of Ukraine, who finished in 1:28.13, said sheknew gold was going to the host nation.
「Evenbefore the race, I knew that Chinese walkers would do everything to win at thehome championships,」 she said.
「AfterLiu set the world record earlier this year, it was absolutely clear that shewas going to take gold in Beijing. We discussed with my coach different optionsfor this race strategy but we decided that it would be better to keep my ownspeed, starting more or less slow to save the power for the second half of thedistance but keeping the leaders in sight.
「Wewere also taking weather conditions into account. Certainly, I was preparingfor Beijing in the hot climate zone as well but humidity is too high here. Itwasn’t easy to bear but I had incredible support from all our team and evenChinese people. That fact inspired me a lot. I had a difficult moment at the14km mark but fortunately it wasn’t protracted and I managed to speed up.」