Reigning European U-23 silver medallist &Aacute;lvaro Mart&iacute;n took an emphatic win at the XXXI Gran Premio Cantones de La Coru&ntilde;a 2017, the Spanish leg of this year&rsquo;s IAAF Race Walking Challenge, on Saturday (3).
Racing in ideal conditions, Martin became the first Spanish victor since 2007 and proved his victory at the national championships over world champion Miguel &Aacute;ngel L&oacute;pez was no fluke.
The women&rsquo;s win went for Brazil&rsquo;s Erica Rocha de Sena, who stamped her authority from midway.
<h3>Mart&iacute;n pushes from the gun</h3>
From the start Mart&iacute;n dictated a sub-4:00/km rhythm which only the Japanese tandem of Daisuke Matsunaga and Eiki Takahashi could manage to sustain while L&oacute;pez travelled six seconds in arrears.
That trio went through the halfway point in 39:46 with a six-second advantage over the surprising Tunisian Hassanine Sbai, himself five seconds clear of Sweden&rsquo;s Perseus Karlstr&ouml;m with L&oacute;pez in sixth another two seconds adrift.
To the delight of the knowledgeable crowd assembled, Mart&iacute;n made a decisive move some 46 minutes into the race when a 3:54 split allowed him to build a sizeable gap on the Japanese pair who walked 10 seconds behind the local hero by the 14th kilometre, with Karlstr&ouml;m being a threatening fourth and L&oacute;pez already out of the podium picture.
Boosted by local supporters throughout Mart&iacute;n extended his lead in the closing stages while first Karlstr&ouml;m and then Sbai overtook the fading pair of Matsunaga and Takahashi. Having secured the most remarkable victory of his career, Mart&iacute;n slowed down over the final hundred metres to send greetings to the fans. Despite that, the 2013 European Junior 10,000m bronze medallist managed the second sub-1:20 performance of his career, only bettered by the 1:19:36 time he set last year in Rome.
Karlstr&ouml;m was second with a 1:20:20 season&rsquo;s best while Sbai got his fastest time for six years to finish 16 seconds outside his 1:20:19 PB set back in 2011. The Japanese duo had to settle for completing the top-five while L&oacute;pez faltered over the second half to cross the finish line in 1:22:04 for 13th.
&ldquo;I had a thorn on my side because I didn&rsquo;t perform well at the European Cup in Podebrady (he finished 31st) some three weeks ago so today&rsquo;s performance is an enormous confidence booster for the rest of the season,&rdquo; said Mart&iacute;n, who will turn 24 on 18 June.
&ldquo;I hope to be part of the Spanish team for London which will be announced next Tuesday. Once there, I don&rsquo;t rule out anything as I think the medals are wide open on this occasion: the Chinese have not performed fast yet, Germany&rsquo;s Christopher Linke will be dangerous, Miguel &Aacute;ngel L&oacute;pez will fight to retain his title. I look forward to competing there among the world&rsquo;s finest walkers.&rdquo;
Mart&iacute;n, who is coached by Jos&eacute; Antonio Quintana at the High Performance Centre in Madrid, confirmed that he &ldquo;slowed down in the final stages because I wanted to thank the support from the crowd. I didn&rsquo;t mind the time; athletics is about places above all, not about times.&rdquo;
<h3>De Sena in a class of her own</h3>
The women&rsquo;s event opened at a steady 4:30/km pace and no fewer than seven athletes went through the 5km point in 22:36: Chinese pre-race favourite Wang Yingliu, Brazil&rsquo;s Erica Rocha de Sena, Portugal&rsquo;s Ines Henriques, Guatemala&rsquo;s Mirna Ortiz and the Spanish trio of Ainhoa Pinedo, Lidia S&aacute;nchez-Puebla and Julia Takacs.
Just before midway, De Sena and Yingliu broke away from the rest of the pack and led by seven seconds clocking 44:54. The Brazilian began to step up the pace in the 13th kilometre and became the lone leader with the clock reading 58 minutes. By the 15km checkpoint De Sena was a comfortable leader after building an 18-second gap on the Chinese, herself 11 seconds clear of a triumvirate compounded by Henriques, S&aacute;nchez-Puebla and Pinedo.
The closing section witnessed how De Sena gradually strengthened her leadership while the relatively unheralded Pinedo (PB of 1:31:58) lowered bit by bit her disadvantage with Yingliu to finally catch and overtake her with some 1500 metres remaining.
At the tape, the Brazilian &ndash; a creditable seventh at the Rio Olympics last year - managed a season&rsquo;s best of 1:29:16 while Pinedo set a massive career best by over two minutes in 1:29:50, six seconds faster than Yingliu. Henriques was a distant fourth 1:28 behind the victor but still seven seconds ahead of S&aacute;nchez-Puebla, who completed the top-five.
Runner-up Pinedo spent two months in Canberra early this year in her build-up for this season and that experience paid off today with her best ever performance by far. Pinedo clocked well under the qualifying standard to compete at the IAAF World Championships London 2017 in August where she will contest her first major championships at the age of 34.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF

Reigning European U-23 silver medallist Álvaro Martín took an emphatic win at the XXXI Gran Premio Cantones de La Coruña 2017, the Spanish leg of this year’s IAAF Race Walking Challenge, on Saturday (3).

Martin and De Sena take the spoils in La Coruña

China&rsquo;s Olympic silver medallist Qieyang Shenjie fulfilled her role as favourite at the Grande Pr&eacute;mio Internacional de Rio Maior em Marcha Atl&eacute;tica 2016, an IAAF Race Walking Challenge meeting, winning in a season&rsquo;s best of 1:27:52 on Saturday (9).
She hit the front just before the halfway point and had a three-second advantage over Italy&rsquo;s Eleonora Giorgi at 10km. The pair had quickly established a big lead over the rest of the women until Qieyang started to edge away, passing this checkpoint in 44:18 and 44:21 respectively.
Qieyang then gradually increased her speed, getting faster and faster over the last 10 kilometres and dominating the race from the front, emulating her compatriot Liu Hong who won in Rio Maior 12 months ago.
After going through the first two 5km splits in 22:11 and 22:07, the Chinese race walker ratcheted up the pace and produced a 5km split of 21:58 to go through 15km in 1:06:14, 15 seconds ahead of the Italian who had won at the last European leg of the challenge in the Slovakian town of Dudince three weeks ago.
Qieyang finished off her commanding performance in Rio Maior with a 21:38 5km split to cross the line 28 seconds in advance of Giorgi, who came home in 1:28:20 to finish second behind a Chinese race walker for the second year running.
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.
"I was pleased with this performance," said Qieyang, whose case for going to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be strengthened by this win, despite finishing fourth at China's recent Olympic trial race. "This was a good competition with a good course. I intended to make about 1:28 and I made a little faster. This was a good test for me, with great sensations for my plans concerning the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships and I'm looking forward for the Olympic Games."
Fellow Italian Elisa Rigaudo finished strongly over the last three kilometres to take third in 1:28:31, the 2008 Olympic and 2011 world bronze medallist finishing in this position in Rio Maior for the second consecutive year.
Further back, Brazil&rsquo;s Erica de Sena, who was part of a big chasing group that was 39 seconds behind Giorgi at the halfway point, just lost out in the battle with Rigaudo for the final place on the podium over the final five kilometres but still finished in 1:28:40, just 18 seconds adrift of the South American record she set when finishing second to Giorgi in Dudince.
<h3>Martin has best day of his career</h3>
Alvaro Martin, last year&rsquo;s European under-23 silver medallist, got the biggest win of his career when the 21-year-old Spaniard took the men&rsquo;s title in 1:21:03 with South Africa&rsquo;s Lebogang Shange 20 seconds further back in second place.
Ecuador&rsquo;s Andres Chocho, this year&rsquo;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.
Martin, Shange and Chocho passed the halfway point together in 40:55, part of a large group of 10, before breaking away shortly afterwards.
This trio, along with Venezuela&rsquo;s Richard Vargas,&nbsp;were still together 5km later when they reached 15km in 1:01:13, with Italy&rsquo;s Marco De Luca 10 seconds further back in fifth place.
But Martin threw down the gauntlet over the final five kilometres, covering this split in 19:50 to get away from his two rivals.
"This was great, because I had good rivals here and they pushed me to this great win. I&rsquo;m very pleased with that," said the delighted winner.
"I came here to win or at least to make the podium. I had unbeatable sensations, felt quite strong throughout the race and had no problems to break away from my rivals over the closing kilometres. Today's event was intented to be a test for next month's IAAF Walk Race Walking Team Championships to be held in Rome," added Martin.
Shange only settled for second place over the final kilometre but Chocho struggled in the later stages of the race and was almost caught by De Luca, who came through to finish fourth in 1:22:01.
Brazil's Jose Bagio finished fifth in 1:22:15 as Vargas struggled over the final five kilmetres and slipped back to sixth in 1:22:27.
Guatemala&rsquo;s Olympic silver medallist Erick Barrondo was disqualified at about 14km while another of the favoured South American contingent, Brazil&rsquo;s Caio Bonfim, dropped out early in the race.
Phil Minshull and Antonio Fernandes for the IAAF

China’s Olympic silver medallist Qieyang Shenjie fulfilled her role as favourite at the Grande Prémio Internacional de Rio Maior em Marcha Atlética 2016, an IAAF Race Walking Challenge meeting, winning in a season’s best of 1:27:52 on Saturday (9).

Martin and De Sena take the spoils in La Coruña

Qieyang and Martin take the honours in Rio Maior