Victory to Poland* then the Mexicans and Spanish in the 1996 Olympic 50km walk.
(Photo - Linda Talbott) Source: Dave's World Class Racewalking site.
*[the winner from Poland was the legendary Robert Korzenowski of course, see my webpageabout THE racewalker of the decade. He went on to take the 2000 Sydney Olympic 50km walk (which I had the privelege of competing in the trials for, and watching the race at Stadium Australia, see this webpage) AND 20km walk, the first in history to do the double, set a world record of 3.hr 36min for the 50km walk in 2002, and become a TRIPLE winner
of the 50km walk (Atlanta 96/Sydney 2000 Athens 2004)in 2004 before retiring.
Korzenowski waiting to pounce on Massana from Spain.
AGAIN! the master, this time of the Sydney 2000 Olympic 50km walk. Nathan Deakes from Australia is also in this photo.
Nathan Deakes was not far off the medals in this race, and went on to win the bronze medal in the 20km at the Athens Olympics in 2004. He was also fighting it out with the great Korzenowski in the Athens 2004 50km walk, until being DQ'éd. Korzenowski won the 50km for the third Olympics in a row (Atlanta/Sydney/Athens).
Nathan Deakes of Australia won the 20km Walk and 50km Walk double at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, which also saw Jane Saville win the Womans 20km Walk to complete an Australian dominance of the Racewalking at these Games.
Deakes, along with another Australian champion in Jane Saville(who put the heartbreak of being DQ-ed while leading the Sydney Olympics 20km behind her to win the Bronze in the 2004 Athens Olympics Womens 20km Walk and finish 2004 ranked No 1 in the world by the IAAF),
both successfully defended their Commonwealth Games titles in Melbourne in 2006....I really enjoyed watching it with my now wife Kathryn and took lots of photos at the 50km walk!....Caught up with two blokes Graham and Daniel who I had raced and/or trained with back in my racewalking days in WA...
Visiting Melbourne in March 2006 was well worth it, especially as it was free to watch the Walks & the Marathon out on the course) Enjoyed cheering on Aussie victories in the Walks at the Commonwealth Games! Kathryn and I had our blue Nathan Deakes shirts on and I saw lots of Chris Erickson shirts there too...awesome experience.... Aussie Aussie Aussie!
.......
The view onto the MCG for track events....and....At the 50km walk outside the Docklands Testra Dome AFL stadium....
Have heaps more photos from the race may get around to putting some of them online one day....
2006; Sunday March 19; Marathon....Monday March 20; 20km walks....Friday March 24 50km walk... Be interesting to see how Australia goes in Beijing Olympics 2008, especially after Deakes doing a 20km in 1hr 17 in 2005, and in;
December 2006 breaking the world record in the 50km walk with a 3hr 35! in Geelong....
August 2007;Nathan Deakes also took the World Champion GOLD medal in the 2007 Osaka 50km walk in, entering the stadium in 3.43 in the hot, humid conditions...
unfortunately Deakes got injured training flat out for the Beijing Olympics in Europe but another Victorian in young Jarrad TALLENT stepped up to take the Silver medal in the Beijing Olympics 50km walk and the Bronze medal in the 20km walk also... I got to chat with Jarrad when I spotted him racewalking the 2007 Melbourne Marathon, ( I ran alongside him for a bit during my 4hr 10, he beat me by heaps even though he was racewalking) the year before he became world famous...
