THE GREAT MÁRIA PERÉZ COMPLETED THE SPANISH WALKING DOUBLE ON THE 20KM TRACK - 1:26:51h. SILVER AUSTRALIAN MONTAG IN NATIONAL RECORD - 1:27:16. ITALKA PALMISANO, BRONZE HEROINE OF THE RACE AND THE GREATEST FOOTBALL WARRIOR - 1:27:26h. DISAPPOINTED ELIŠKA MARTÍNKOVA IN 27TH PLACE - 1:34:02h.

Author of the article: Lucie Nekulová / Author of the photos and our special correspondent in Budapest: Horst Kiepert

RESULTS 20KM RACE WALK WOMAN

After Saturday's racing whirlwind, when the walking fans were left with their mouths open and speechless astonishment after watching the fastest race in history, on Sunday they stood on the starting line of the 20km women's race. The weather did not prevent anything this time, the early morning start promised acceptable conditions even in the later stages of the race.

47 female walkers started the race, led by defending champion Kimberly García León from Peru.

Czech fans could also enjoy the Czech flag thanks to Eliška Martínková's start.

Right from the start, the defending champion set the pace, followed by the Australian favorite Montag, the Chinese Ma and Yang, the Spanish longer distance world record holder Mária Peréz, the Olympic champion Palmisano and the Mexican González. What a name, it's a pedestrian concept. From the beginning, another Peruvian Inka and Colombian representative Arenas tried to stay in the group. However, the 4:20 pace proved fatal for both of them, they quickly collected suggestions for disqualification and gradually said goodbye to the race.

The other competitors kept a distance of a few seconds from the start, which gradually increased. Only Glenda Morejón, the winner of the 35 km race from the WC in Oman, was able to join the group fighting for victory.

León dictated the pace of the race, but her performance was nowhere near as commanding as it was in Oregon. The petite González went through several crises, but she always managed to return to the group when she lost a few meters.

10km in 43:43. That's world class walking! In the second half of the race, the defending champion started to have problems, on the contrary, the Italian set the pace more and more. She had repeated problems in the 180 turnº, when jí shoes were obviously slipping and once it ended with a fall. However, she did not let that get her down and quickly worked her way back into the fight for victory.

Mária Peréz attacked at 16 km. After a series of disqualifications in previous years, she has significantly worked on technique and this year is reaping really sweet fruit. At the sixteenth kilometer at a pace of 4:06, even the excellent Montag could not react, but thanks to an intermediate time of 4:10, she clearly reached for the silver medal. However, there was still a battle for the third one. The Spaniard distanced herself massively from her rivals, and so did Montag. Palmisano was forced to resist Morejón's pressure, but her desire for medals can only be compared to the efforts of the Spanish viking Karlström, and Morejón soon had no chance. García León still tried to talk her into the race, but this time she couldn't find the recipe for her opponents who were going great.

The huge lead allowed Peréz to rejoice long before the finish line, she even managed one hug and crossed the finish line in 1:26:51, crying with happiness. The second Montag bettered her own national (and continental) record of 1:27:16 and crossed the finish line ten seconds back from the injury returning Palmisano in a best performance of the season.

13 women managed to break the 90-minute mark!

The Czech competitor entered the race on the ČAS wild card. Although she met the WA nomination criteria, ČAS set confirmation limits after last year, and this year it was beyond the power of the Czech star. However, after the 12th place in Poděbrady, the sparrows were already chatting about being awarded a wild card.

Eliška started encouraged by her performance from the Universiade. This year's performance was 34th on the starting list, and anything in the first half of the starting field would be a success.

For the first kilometers, Eliška tried to keep a pace of 4:32 and went together with the champion from Espaa, the French Stey. After the sixth kilometer, when both competitors worked their way up to the level of 30th place, they started to slow down. However, what was in the range of 2-3 seconds for Francouzsky (finally 18th - 1:31:20), was worse for Eliška.

The struggling Czech competitor sometimes moved up in the standings mainly due to the disqualifications of her rivals.

In the second half of the course, she also faced two proposals for exclusion, but the pace just below the 5-minute mark gave good hope that Eliška would finish the race. She eventually crossed the finish line in a lackluster time of 1:34:02 in 27th place.

It is to Eliška's credit that she evaluated her performance very realistically after the race and did not reach for excuses about the weather and her health condition, which, as is already customary with the reporter Čt, was de facto offered to her by Žaneta Peřinová in the interview.

It must be said that Eliška did not prove the rightness of the wild card with Sunday's performance. Unsalted lean performance did not detract from the entire unremarkable season. The competitor herself and the coach praised the training stay in Colombia. The question is whether the altitude there was simply too high. Slovak pedestrian Morvay, who was also in Colombia (for a shorter time), is experiencing an equally unremarkable season. At the same time, the hard work and commitment of both athletes cannot be denied.

So Eliška can enjoy at least a medal from the Universiade this year. And by encouraging further work, a factual comparison with this year's medalist Montag. This medical student also won silver at the University of Naples in 2019 (Anežka Drahotová was third at the time). At that time, Jemima's OR was at the level of last year's performance of Eliščina from Poděbrady. Since then she has come a long way, she can regularly go under 1:28:00 and on Sunday she hung the world silver around her neck...