Category — Race Walking

Athens 2004 silver medalist Denis Nizhegorodov (left) set a new world record in the 50 km walk by clocking three hours, 34 minutes and 14 seconds at the World Race Walking Cup on Sunday, 11 May, according to a Reuters report.

The 27-year-old Russian bettered the time of 3:35.47 set by Australian Nathan Deakes on Dec. 2, 2006 in Geelong, Australia.

“It becomes a good tradition for me to set records before the Olympics,” said Nizhegorodov, who won the silver medal in the 50 km walk at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

“I broke the world record in May 2004, a couple of months before the Games in Athens, but unfortunately that record wasn’t ratified. I hope it’ll be different this time round.”

PHOTO SOURCE: olympic.org

Jefferson Perez the race walker and Jefferson Perez the scholar. Jefferson became Ecuador’s first Olympic medalist when he won the gold medal in the 20-km speed walking competition during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Although his gold in Atlanta remains his only Olympic medal to date, Jefferson has bagged a total of three gold medals in the World Championships (2003 Paris, 2005 Helsinki, and 2007 Osaka). Jefferson used to hold the world record in race walking (1:17:21) but his record was broken last year by Russian Vladimir Kanaykin who set a record time of 1:17:16.

Jefferson is currently training in Cuenca, Ecuador and is aiming for another Olympic gold during the Beijing Games which, incidentally, could be his last Olympics.

Says, our champion race walker on retirement: “I will retire whenever I do not like getting up at 7:00 in the morning on weekends to climb at 4,000 meters above sea level, at zero degrees in adverse conditions.”

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