Cowley and Pitcher ready to take on world in their stride

Buoyed by Nina Kennedy’s pole vault gold on Day Five of competition, Australia’s race walkers are ready and raring to return to the roads, with Rhydian Cowley and Allanah Pitcher set to march on while it’s semi-final time for Joseph Deng on the track. 

Seasoned veteran Rhydian Cowley (VIC, Brent Vallance) walked his way to a slick 14th place finish in the Men’s 20km Race Walk on the opening day of competition, but the manner in which he did so bodes well for his hopes in today’s Men’s 35km Race Walk - his preferred event. 

Sitting outside the top 20 with five-kilometres left to walk on Day One, Cowley mustered his trademark closing speed to deliver some of the quickest closing sectionals of the day, with the 15-time Australian representative developing sound credentials as being stronger for longer. 

A top-eight finisher at the Tokyo Olympic Games in the Men’s 50km Race Walk, the 32-year-old is confident he can outlast many of his rivals this morning, holding the Australian and Oceania record at 2:27:33.

“Particularly after my result in the 20km, I’m ready to go. It shows that my fitness is better than last year, so I’m excited to give it a crack and try to improve on last year and even try to improve on my 14th place in the 20km,” Cowley said.

“If I look at how fast the 20km event was, it will be a hot pace tomorrow. In my last race, I finished 14th in under 80-minutes and was still two minutes off the pace. Having that behind me now, I’m also hoping that being in that environment will also drag me along.”

Racing fresh off his career-best result at a World Championships, Cowley will look to leverage his wealth of experience in the unpredictable and at times adverse conditions the championships have served up to date. 

“I try not to hold myself too specifically on times or places, I prefer to focus on getting the process right knowing that if I do that, the performance will come. I would love to try and replicate my Tokyo performance and get that Top-8 finish, but the aim is always to get the top performance that I can on the day and see where that lands me. 

Joining Cowley on the roads will be his female counterpart, Allanah Pitcher (NSW, Frank Overton). The 19-year-old is set to make her World Championships debut after finding her niche in the endurance walks event, embracing every step on the world stage. 

“I feel like the anticipation has been building so much. I’ve been over in Budapest for a little while now and our race walkers have had their races. I feel like it’s my turn and I’m excited to finally seize the opportunity,” Pitcher said.

“I am the baby of the race so tomorrow will be about soaking in the experience and learning about how to race in a bigger pack. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from our Australian race walkers, they’re so incredible. 

“No matter how close I become to them as friends, they still are my idols, especially Jem (Jemima Montag) and her silver medal. Jem is an advocate for young females in sport and she will always continue to inspire me.”

Australia’s first sub-1:44 man over 800m Joseph Deng (VIC, Justin Rinaldi) is ready to roll in Semi-Final 1 of the Men’s 800m, after coasting through his heat on Day 4 in style when securing automatic qualification. 

On that occasion, Deng raced prominently in the field before bursting away from the rail when entering the home straight, entering today’s second round determined to cap off his first international appearance in five years with a finals berth.

“Anything is possible at the moment. Top two is the main goal on Thursday. Just come top two and then see what I can do in the final,” Deng said.

King Island product Stewart McSweyn (TAS, Nic Bideau) will make his second appearance of his Budapest campaign when being joined by Morgan McDonald (NSW, Dathan Ritzenhein) in the Men’s 5000m heats - where 44 men will be whittled down to 16 ahead of the final. 

The Olympic finalist was uncharacteristically run out in the heats of the Men’s 1500m on Day Two of competition, but is assured to bounce back over 12.5 laps today, with his personal best of 12:56.50 ranking him eighth in Heat 1.

Raced sparingly over the last two years due to an unlucky sequence of injuries, the resilient McDonald will compete to make it all worthwhile in Heat 2, lining up on his first Australian team since the Tokyo Olympic Games.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 24/08/2023