World champion Miguel Angel Lopez will face four of the 10 fastest race walkers this year when he competes at the Gran Premio Cantones de La Coruña, the Spanish leg of this year’s IAAF Race Walking Challenge, on Saturday (3).

Miguel Angel Lopez produced one of the shocks of the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 when the Spaniard came through strongly over the last two kilometres to leave the highly-rated Chinese race walkers floundering in his wake on their home soil.

Some fine performances by Miguel Ángel López in the 10,000m race walk and Orlando Ortega in the 110m hurdles capped the Spanish Championships in Gijón on 23-24 July.

For the second consecutive year, Chinese race walkers Liu Hong and Wang Zhen took the honours at the XXX Gran Premio Cantones de La Coruna 2016, the Spanish leg of this year’s IAAF Race Walking Challenge, on Saturday (28).

Miguel Angel Lopez and Liu Hong will race over the distances at which they won their world titles in Beijing last summer at the XXX Gran Premio Cantones de La Coruna 2016, the Spanish leg of this year’s IAAF Race Walking Challenge, on Saturday (28).

Spain will be represented by 21 athletes at the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships Rome 2016 on 7-8 May.

Race walkers Jesus Angel Garcia and Miguel Angel Lopez will represent Spain at both the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships.

For more than a fleeting moment, it looked as though Asia – and specifically China – would win their first IAAF World Championships gold medal in the men’s 20km race walk.

Ruth Beitia and Miguel Angel Lopez, the country’s top World Championships medal hopes, were in fine form at the Spanish Championships, held in Castellon de la Plana on 1-2 August.

A mouth-watering line-up has been assembled at the Gran Premio Cantones de Marcha – the Spanish leg of the 2015 IAAF Race Walking Challenge – on Saturday (6) in La Coruna, a city which has annually hosted this world-class competition since 1987.

There is no place like home; ask Miguel Angel Lopez. The Spaniard knows the streets of Murcia like the back of his hand, and on Sunday (17) he made them his own at the European Cup Race Walking, part of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge.

There was a time when Miguel Angel Lopez believed 27 was the optimum age to deliver the goods at a major championship.