Daniel Coleman produces PB at World Cup
11 May 2008
In his second outing at the World Racing Walking Cup, Daniel Coleman produced a personal best time of 43.57min for the 10km distance.
The performance in Cheboksary, Russia, placed him 26th overall and was under the world junior qualifying performance.
Not only was Coleman the first Australian, he was also the first from any Commonwealth country.
After sitting in 32nd place at the halfway mark, Coleman produced a gutsy second half performance to overtake half a dozen fellow walkers, earning valuable points, to lead the Australian team to 14th.
In the Open Men, Australia had an outstanding day out, taking home the bronze medal in the 20km men's event.
An important test against the world’s best less than 100 days out from the commencement of the athletics competition in
Russia and Spain filled the remaining two team spots on the podium, with Spaniard Francisco Fernandez (1:18.15) taking the individual honours and US$30,000 first prize, ahead of Russian Valeriy Borchin (1:18.21).
The race unfolded as expected. Australia's in-form athlete, Jared Tallent, who was in the hunt for an individual medal, was in the breakaway pack of six athletes after 10km which included defending champion Fernandez, the Russian trio of Borchin, Illya Markov and Andrey Krivov and Eder Sanchez of Mexico, until his 39:14 10km split took it's toll on Australia's rising star.
Adams, who had dropped off from the lead pack, and was sitting 15th through 10km, battled hard to close the gap. Positioned 11th at the 15km mark, the reigning IAAF World Race Walking Challenge champion unleashed a 7:42 final lap, crossing the line in seventh place (1:19.15) to bring
Tallent fought on to record a time of 1:19:48 for 10th place to be
Adams (20km), Tallent (20km and 50km) and Rutter (50km) with now continue their preparations for
Coleman will return back to Australia this week with the rest of the Australian team.