¶ 2021 wOG 20W: Antonella Palmisano (Italy) 1:29:12

[gh]

T&FN formchart:



1. Hong Liu (China)

2. Jiayu Yang (China)

3. Shenjie Qieyang (China)

4. Antonella Palmisano (Italy)

5. Eleonora Giorgi (Italy)

6. Mária Pérez (Spain)

7. Erica de Sena (Brazil)

8. Sandra Arenas (Colombia)

9. Alegna González (Mexico)

10. Elvira Khasanova (Russia)

[MJR]

Not sure how Giorgi comes in at 5. Been a few years since she was a threat at 20km and also victim to DQs over the last few years at that distance just trying to keep pace. Lovely woman, just unlikely to be a realistic pick.

[Steele]

Marathon: Two or three shoes dominate footwear choices. 75% of the field is in some hot pink/neon-green soled shoes.
Race Walking: No two shoes look alike.

One might think the walkers don't want the energy return of the carbon-plated shoes?

[Steele]

To my uninitiated eye most of these women look like they are lifting. I don't know how the judges do it.

Tons of spectators along the course.

[ItalianFan]

Yang stopped for 2 minutes.

Palmisano is in the lead with 1 km to go.
Arenas follows 18 seconds behind and she has 2 Loss of Contact warnings.
Sena is third. Two loss of contacts alerts for her too.

[ItalianFan]

Sena stopped for 2 minutes too.

Liu is now third. She has 2 loss of contacts proposal too.

[Vault-emort]

It was an exciting race to watch and the penalty box caused even more late excitement.

Congrats to Antonella. It must be an extra thrill to win Olympic Gold on your birthday!

[LuckySpikes]

Forza Antonella!

Or Anutella as the Aussie idiot on CBC had it.

Fabulous day for South American race walking with Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL) winning the continent's first ever World Ch/Olympic medal in women's RW. What a fabulous story the rise of South Amecian women has been in RW in the last 10 years. Heartbreak for Erica de Sena (BRA) though - on course for a medal before being pulled for a 2 minute penalty in the final lap.

Shocked that the Chinese challenge fell away.

What a terrific walk too for Alegna Gonzalez (MEX) in 5th, the 2018 World U20 Champion at 10,000m.

[MJR]

Marathon: Two or three shoes dominate footwear choices. 75% of the field is in some hot pink/neon-green soled shoes.
Race Walking: No two shoes look alike.

One might think the walkers don't want the energy return of the carbon-plated shoes?

They don't. Those shoes are designed for runners and throw off the mechanics of walking. Plus, they may also cause more loss of contact to occur. If you noticed all the purple shoes across 3 races, those are designed for RWing.

[KDFINE]

Finally saw the telecast of the race. Have the rules on warning and disqualifications been relaxed in recent years? Secondly, it was a pleasure to listen wihout Leigh Diffey's blathering.

[Powell]

One might think the walkers don't want the energy return of the carbon-plated shoes?

Do the supershoes provide as much benefit to the walkers as the runners?

[TN1965]

Finally saw the telecast of the race. Have the rules on warning and disqualifications been relaxed in recent years? Secondly, it was a pleasure to listen wihout Leigh Diffey's blathering.

Those commentators were worse than Diffey. When Palmisano picked up the pace and started pulling away from the pack, they kept talking about the American walker who was just lapped by the lead pack. And then, NBCSN made sure to insert a commercial break, and by the time they came back, Palmisano had already built a big lead.

I have no finished watching men's 50k yet, but there was a similar point where the two commentators kept talking about DQ incidents at Sydney Games for minutes while the camera was showing a lead change.