On Thursday, the 51st edition of the Sport Walking Festival took place in Alytus, which was opened by the silver competition of the World Athletics Sport Walking Tour. In them, the athletes covered the 20 km distance and even improved two race records – first it was done by the Polish Maher Ben Hlima (1 hour 20 minutes 5 seconds), who took the first place among the men, and later such an achievement was recorded by the Ukrainian Lyudmila Olyanovska (1 hour 28 minutes 30 seconds), who was the fastest among women.
The time recorded by the winner is half a minute better than the World Championship standard. It is not the first time that the Ukrainian has won the victory in Alytus, and after last year’s triumph she said that she “likes to participate in this competition”. L. Olyanovska, who has a bronze medal at the World Championships and silver and bronze medals at the European Championships in her collection, started for the fifth time this year and won her fifth victory. The most striking achievement was achieved less than a month ago, when in Podebradi (Czech Republic) the representative of sport walking took first place in the European Sport Walking Team Championships.
The previous record of the competition belonged to Neringa Aidietytė (1 hour 29 minutes 1 second), and L. Olyanovska, who improved it, received a prize of 300 euros from the organizers. The second finish line was crossed by another Ukrainian representative Mariia Sakharuk (1 hour 29 minutes 13 seconds), and the third place was won by the Italian Federica Curiazzi (1 hour 29 minutes 55 seconds). The fifth place in this international competition was taken by Austėja Kavaliauskaitė, who covered the distance in 1 hour 34 minutes 40 seconds. (personal record improved by more than a minute – author’s note) and became the Lithuanian champion.
“I finally managed, after a difficult season, to achieve a personal record. The race course was not bad, the weather was favorable and high results could be achieved. We were planning a personal best at the beginning of the season, but injuries prevented us. I am glad that we have been able to do it now and I hope that the result will be even better in the future,” said A. Kavaliauskaitė after the finish.
The Lithuanian, who is struggling with inflammation of the internal muscles of the hip joint this season, said that the situation is better at the moment, and it is always fun to participate in the prestigious athletic walking competition, which takes place every year in Alytus: “I am rehabilitating. Comparing the situation at the beginning of the season and now, it has improved significantly. There is discomfort during training, but everything is improving. This competition is of a high level, it gathers athletes from different countries. According to the results, it can be said that there is a lot of competition and strong rivals. It is happy and fun to participate, especially when such competitions are held in Lithuania.”
The athlete, who has participated in the competition five times this year, did not hide that she does not expect to qualify for the World Championships to be held in Tokyo (Japan) in September (20 km sport walking norm – 1 hour 29 minutes – author’s note), but does not rule out the possibility of starting again this year: “We have been focusing on the Lithuanian championship lately. Now there are no other starts, unless we find a competition with the coach. The form is improving, so maybe we can still look for higher-level starts and strive for a result there. I’ve lost hope of getting to the World Cup. Of course, we expected that there would be at least a few starts with high results and it would be possible to enter according to the ranking. However, the season did not turn out the way we wanted, so the personal result achieved now does not save anything.”
M. B. Hlima, who improved the men’s competition record, also received a prize of 300 euros from the organizers. The second place was taken by the Ukrainian Serhii Svitlychnyi (1 hour 20 minutes 18 seconds), and the third place was finished by the Slovakian Dominik Černy (1 hour 21 minutes 39 seconds). The previous record of the competition belonged to Jevgenijus Misiulia (1 hour 20 minutes 33 seconds). Darius Jazepčikas finished first in the Lithuanian championship (1 hour 46 minutes 41 seconds), and his result was 11th among all participants.
The first six places in the silver competition of the World Athletics Walking Tour, both in the men’s and women’s groups, were awarded with cash prizes. For example, the first place received a prize of 1000 euros from the organizers, the second – a prize of 700 euros, and the third – a prize of 500 euros.
During the Alytus Sports Walking Festival, the Lithuanian U23 and Youth (U20) 10 km championships were also held. In the U23 age group, Lukas Lasevičius became the champion (47 min. 20 sec.), while in the U20 age group the first places were won by Adrijana Karinauskaitė (57 min. 24 sec.) and Liudas Grincevičius (49 min. 54 sec.).
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Photo by Darius Kibirkščis.
