Sydney
was in February 2000 to race in the Open Men's Australian Championship 20km walk on February 26th.
This event was also an Olympic trial race and Olympic test event.
The race was run concurrently with the Open Womens Australian 20km walk Championship.
I finished 27th out of 29 competitors, in 1hr 54.43. I was the 19th Australian to finish, there were 8 internationals in front of me, and there were also quite a lot of DNF's probably due to the hot and humid (close to 100%) conditions and the fast pace early due to the presence of many international athletes in the race, and excitement of the venue. Joel Sanchez of Mexico, is one who after finishing 2nd in this race, returned to this venue for the Olympics later that year to pick up a bronze medal in the 50km.
Full results here.
The conditions were hot and very humid. The race began with 5 laps of the Stadium Australia 400m track (2km), then another 2km out to the road course outside the stadium, where we did 7 times 2km laps, (and made great use of the drinks tables...), then back into the stadium to finish on the track in Stadium Australia in front of a small crowd of a few thousand....It was an awesome experience.
Here are some photos from the trip;
Me after the race in the stadium...Thanks to Caleb Maybir of QLD for taking this photo.
