Race walkers re-group in Thredbo

Australia's most elite race walkers will be ready for the biggest year of their careers to date, after the completion of a high altitude camp at Thredbo this week. 

The easing of border restrictions within Australia made the camp a realistic possibility to host a large percentage of the nation’s best race walkers, which Athletics Australia Event Group Lead - Walks Brent Vallance says has been accomplished. 

“We’ve captured most of the talent pool across the country which we’re pretty happy about,” he said. 

Vallance says the average day on the camp consists of long threshold workouts in the morning, followed by shorter repetitions in the afternoon along with a structured gym routine. 

The three week camp headlined by Australian stars Jemima Montag, Jared Tallent, Katie Hayward and Rhydian Cowley and was designed to prepare Australia’s elites for the world stage in 2021. 

“My goal is to influence the daily training environment and actually have genuine training impact and improvement of performance,” Vallance said. 

“Our 20km trials are on February 14, so these camps are really important for a lot of our people aspiring to claim some bonus points and hopefully some fast times to stake their claim for Olympic selection.” 

Montag has already punched her ticket to Tokyo and Vallance says she has had “a fantastic winter’s training” and that her “fitness is starting to shine through”. 

Hayward and Cowley have also clocked Tokyo qualifying standards, with Vallance also touting Declan Tinga as a rising star. 

“He was fourth at World Juniors a couple of years ago and broke our national junior record,” he said. 

“He had a couple of injuries in that junior to senior transition, but he’s tracking for a really good season this year.” 

The top level juniors on the camp will be eyeing off next year’s World Junior Championships in Nairobi, and with the Kenyan capital standing at 1800m above sea level - the lessons learnt on Thredbo will stand them in good stead. 

“We’ve got a lot of transitioning athletes going from under 20’s to seniors, which in walking their race distances are doubled,’ he said. 

“And in a year that we didn’t have World Juniors, I thought it was pretty important to offer a lot of the 18 to 21-year-old athletes an opportunity as well.” 

The goals of the camp have extended far beyond athletics, with Vallance determined to prepare his athletes for all elements of athletics and life. 

“We’ve had communal cooking and we’ve had a couple of really good chefs here so the food quality has been sensational,” he said. 

“Learning how to live together and learning how to train together are very important aspects of learning how to travel and compete as well.” 

The group will return to Thredbo for another stint of training in January 2021. 

By Lachlan Moorhouse
Posted: 16/12/2020