25TH RIO MAIOR INTERNATIONAL RACE WALKING GRAND PRIX

On April 9th, 2016, the Rio Maior Race Walking International Grand Prix reached this year to an impressive 25th edition. Since 1992 Rio Maior has become one of the strongest pillars upon which the annual IAAF Race Walking Challenge is based, which has established the event’s renowned organization credentials worldwide.

China’s Olympic silver medallist Qieyang Shenjie fulfilled her role as favourite at the Grande Prémio Internacional de Rio Maior em Marcha Atlética  winning in a season’s best of 1:27:52.
For Qieyang, it was also a happy retrun to the Portuguese race and redemption for what happened in 2015, when the former Asian record-holder had to pull out barely five kilometres into the race.

Alvaro Martin, last year’s European under-23 silver medallist, got the biggest win of his career when the 21-year-old Spaniard took the men’s title in 1:21:03 with South Africa’s Lebogang Shange 20 seconds further back in second place.

Ecuador’s Andres Chocho, this year’s winner of the 50km at the IAAF Race Walking Challenge event in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez at the start of last month and the 20km gold medallist at the South American Race Walking Championships last weekend, showed just a few effects of his hectic schedule to finish third in 1:21:58.