News11 Jul 2009


From sprinter to race walk medallist in one year!

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Yanelli Caballero of Mexico finishes second in the 5000m Race Walk final (© Getty Images)

Bressanone/Brixen16yearold Yanelli Caballero achieved the best result for her country in the history of the World Youth Championships when she overtook Russia’s Svetlana Vasilyeva in the very last strides of the girls’ 5000m race walk final this morning in Bressanone to finish second.

Mexico had previously conquered two bronze medals in Debrecen 2001 and Ostrava 2007 both in the boys’ 10,000 race walk. Caballero made her mark as the first ever Mexican girl on a World Youth podium and the highest score for her country in an event which is traditionally strong and popular in the Central American country.

Unlike her Russian counterparts Vasilyeva and eventual winner Elena Lashmanova who set off to a suicidal pace from the gun, the diminutive Mexican adopted a more conservative tactic remaining discreet in the chasing pack for the first third of the race.

“I just started at my own rhythm,” she explains after a well deserved lap of honour and her shoulders draped in a Mexican flag. “I upped the tempo gradually and made ground little by little. I grabbed seconds one by one until making up to one minute on the leaders.

“In the last kilometre, that’s when I really went for it.”

Talent scouting

Caballero is one of 25 Mexican here in Bressanone and says she enjoyed her 8-day training camp together with her team-mates in Barcelona, Spain.

“I trained well in Spain before we made our way here and continued my preparation here.”

Trailing over 100 metres half way through the race, Caballero admits she had a medal in sight although she is a novice in the race walking specialty.

“I wasn’t really looking at them,” she analyses. “But I knew exactly where I was. I knew I stood a chance for a medal and that’s what I went for. I came here for a medal, you know.”

Caballero reveals that she turned to race walking only one year ago when a talent scouting was organised in her school in Mexico City. A former sprinter she was one of athletes selected for the race walking camp because she recalls “I had potential.”

“They came to my school to recruit race walkers and I was selected with 6 others. They took me away from the sprints and taught me everything from scratch. They corrected everything from my back posture, my feet, my knees… I remember walking over a straight line for hours on end.”

The youngest of three sisters, Caballero was recruited by Ignacio Zamudio, the 50km race walk sixth placer from the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games who is still her coach. She is the only athlete from the 7 who were selected who still competes in the race walk as “the others grew tired of it.”

Following her silver medal winning effort Caballero declared herself “extremely happy” and does not regret switching from the sprinting events.

Seeing how she managed to catch up with Vasilyeva in the very last strides of today’s 5000m to move from bronze to silver medal position it may well be that her past experience as a sprinter was what made the difference in the end!

Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF

 

 

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