On Top of the World | Jemima Montag Ahead of La Coruna

“If you go into an art gallery and haven’t read anything about the artists or don’t know anything about the pieces, it’s hard to appreciate what you are seeing,” Jemima Montag says.

The world ranked number one is not alluding to the work of Da Vinci or van Gough, but instead illustrations of the world’s premier race walkers, as Australia’s 24-year-old contemporary masterpiece continues to develop stroke by stroke.  

The most delicate touch yet came in the form of a sixth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympic Games, as Montag walked her way into the upper echelon of women’s walkers on the global scene – a status she will be eager to cement at Saturday’s 20km Gran Premio Internacional de Marcha Cantones de A Coruña in Spain.

Montag will match it with the big names of China, Peru, and Spain in the quality field of 60 athletes, ultimately aiming to finish on the podium through responding to the moves of competitors and being aggressive in the back half of the race.

The Australian will go head-to-head with Olympic silver medallist Sandra Lorena Arenas having recently trained alongside the Colombian in Melbourne under the guidance of Brent Vallance, sharpening her race walking craft and refreshing her Spanish skills - even hosting Arenas and her team for a home-cooked meal.

“We’ve had a number of key sessions together where she really has pushed me. It has been amazing to train alongside a woman of that calibre and to share those experiences,” Montag says.

“I studied in Spanish in years 11 and 12 at school, and at first year university. She studies English so we communicate through a bit of a Spanglish, even when it doesn’t quite work out there is always laughter.”

The race is Montag’s first international bout since the Tokyo Games, with a strong result in Spain set to serve as a confidence booster ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene – where the world number one shapes up as a genuine chance to bring home the title.

“There’s been a lot of commotion within the top ten women in the world. From injuries to pregnancies, almost everyone from that top eight in Sapporo is managing some kind of challenge. I feel sad for my competitors for what they are going through, but at the same time it really opens things up,” Montag says.

The Australian record holder boasts a wealth of experience in hot and humid conditions after the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha and 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo – saying that the physiology and dietetics programs in place for Australia’s athletes are world-leading.

“I feel happy that we have a 1pm race in the middle of summer in Oregon, because I feel like this can be my superpower now and I want it to be as hard as possible for my competitors, as evil as that sounds,” Montag says.

“Having that world number one ranking since February, I am trying to welcome in that pressure and simmer in it. We can definitely go better than sixth in Oregon.”

With the idea of a medal at the World Athletics Championships in the forefront of her mind, Montag will also look to secure consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medals when she takes to the 10,000m at Birmingham – building on a historic debut on the Gold Coast in 2018.

“Four years down the line with a whole bunch of training and experience against these women, I have a lot of confidence that I can win that race and it’s something that is really important to me this year,” Montag says.

“Overall, I’m just really pumped to be in the stadium and feel more a part of track and field with the crowd which we don’t always get on the roads.”

Montag cheekily points out that breaking Kerry Saxby-Junna’s 41:57.22 national record from 1990 would be a “fun thing” to do at the Commonwealth Games, but she will first take to Spain this Saturday to kick-start her 2022 international campaign.

Fellow Australians Declan Tingay, Kyle Swan, Will Thompson, Tim Fraser, Mitch Baker, Tyler Jones, Carl Gibbons, Dylan Richardson, Katie Hayward, Bec Henderson and Carla Smith will also compete at La Coruna. 

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 25/5/2022