"Walk in the Park" | Oceania and Australian 35km Race Walking Championships

The inaugural Oceania and Australian 35km Race Walking Championships will attract the area’s best walkers to Melbourne’s Fawkner Park this Sunday, and while even the thought of the event is enough to make most tired – Australia’s Rhydian Cowley describes it as “a walk in the park”.  

It’s a modest assessment of what is a gruelling event, but Cowley has a history of prowess under stress in a discipline that is largely a war of attrition, as demonstrated by his top-eight finish in the 50km race walk at the Tokyo Olympic Games. 

Circumstance suggests that New Zealand’s Quentin Rew will be forced to chase the 2:33:00 World Athletics Championships qualification standard at Fawkner Park if he is to feature in Oregon this July, but with Cowley sitting pretty in qualification avenues – whether he reveals his cards remains to be seen. 

“Coming in as the last national champion in the 50km event, it would be nice to be the first 35km champion – to be part of the closing of one chapter and the opening another,” Cowley says.

“At the start of the season my aim was to do the triple. The 20km and the 35km in Oregon, and the 10km at Birmingham. Getting myself as fit as possible in the 35km will hold me in good stead for the other two, but I would say the 35km is my focus this year.” 

Leaving minor injury troubles in his wake after an 11th place finish at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in March, Cowley is back gliding across the tarmac as he and coach Brent Vallance work to find the perfect formula for an event that is in its infancy. 

“It’s a similar sort of rhythm but getting faster over the 20km distance is good for the 35km based on what we have seen internationally so far, so combining that with my 50km background is going to provide a good mix of strength and speed,” Cowley says.

Cowley is quick to label Fawkner Park as his “home ground” having worked across the road and clocked hundreds of kilometres at the venue, but it’s one that he will share with compatriots and competitors on Sunday – with the 31-year-old eager to help Carl Gibbons (Frank Overton) qualify to join him in Oregon as he looks to build on his recent success.

“I have been around for a while, but I feel like I had never had a great international performance to write home about prior to Tokyo. It was really satisfying to get eighth there, to be able to learn from my previous experiences and piece it together,” Cowley says.

“I’m just trying to do my part in Australia’s great walking history.” 

Kelly Ruddick will shape us a firm favourite to take out the Women’s 35km titles after finishing fourth at the Oceania and Australian 20km Race Walking Championships, with the 2:54:00 world standard not out of the equation for the 49-year-old. Sarah Brennan and New Zealand’s Laura Langley round out the field. 

World ranked number one Jemima Montag (Brent Vallance) will be out to continue her golden 2022 campaign when she takes to the Invitational Open Men and Women 20km Race Walk, having shattered the national and area record in February with a mark of 1:27:27 to clinch the Australian and Oceania titles in emphatic fashion. 

Montag’s brilliance comes off the back of a sixth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics, leaving the 24-year-old sensation primed to impress on the world stage at Oregon and Birmingham, but she will first lead an emerging crop including Olympian Rebecca Henderson (Simon Baker) and Australian Under 20 representatives Oliva Sandery (Bob Cruise and Jared Tallent) and Alanna Peart (Jared Tallent) around Fawkner Park. Olympic silver medallist Sandra Lorena Arenas of Colombia will also toe the line. 

The Men’s contest presents as an even battle, with Tyler Jones (Frank Overton) and Will Thompson (Brent Vallance) leading the charge as the in-form men after personal best performances of 1:24:10 and 1:24:40 respectively in February, both progressing to represent Australia at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Oman.
 

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 11/5/2022