Athletics Australia – News – PBs for Australian race walkers in China

Dane Bird-Smith (Qld) set a personal best and finished fifth at the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Erdos (CHN) on Friday.

The 10km race walk saw China take the top four places in front of their home fans with Wang Zhen, the 20km race walk bronze medallist in London, taking top honours in 39:27.

For Bird-Smith it follows up his first senior title at the Australian Walks Championships in Adelaide last month, and a new personal best of 40:32.

Luke Adams (NSW) finished ninth in 41:06 with Olympic silver medallist Jared Tallent (Vic) in 11th (42:29) and Rhydian Cowley (Vic) one place behind him in 12th, in a new personal best of 43:24.

In the women's 10km race walk Claire Tallent (SA) finished in seventh in 45:29, which smashed her previous personal best by almost two minutes. Again it was a Chinese athlete on top of the rostrum with Liu Hong winning in 43:18.

 Athletics Australia – News