Men’s road races and walks: Return of Röthlin & Diniz; emergence of Yemelyanov

Marathon:

Switzerland's Viktor Röthlin celebrates his victory after the men's marathon race at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.

The men’s marathon season, like usual, divided the runners to two categories: those who looks for fast times in big marathons and those only concentrating on one marathon in a major championships. 36-year-old Swiss Viktor Röthlin, the European silver medallist from Goteborg 2006 and a bronze medallist at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, made this decision which finally bagged him the first gold in Barcelona in a 2:15:31 season’s best time. 

In the end Röthlin faced no real competition with another veteran, 39-year-old Spaniard José Luís Martínez winning the silver well behind in 2:17:50, also a season’s best him in his only marathon of the season. The third medallist, Dmitriy Safronov,  had a different kind of season on either side of his bronze medal performance 2:18:16 in Barcelona. The Russian had run a fast 2:12:55 in Daegu, Korea in April, but then made real progress in December cutting almost two minutes off his personal best in Fukuoka, Japan where he finished in second place in 2:10:12, the second fastest time in Europe in 2010.

European list number one in 2010 was Iaroslav Muşinschi of Moldova, who won the Düsseldorf Marathon in May clocking a fast 2:08:32 national record for this first sub 2:10 marathon. While Muşinschi did not run in Barcelona, Pole Henryk Szost, third in Europe with a 2:10:27 result in Vienna in April and 2:10:46 runner in November, Ukrainian Oleksandr Sitkovskyy were both unable to finish their race in at the European Championships.

20km Walk:

Teenager Stanislav Yemelyanov of Russia won the men's 20km walk in Barcelona.

50 km specialist Italian Olympic champion Alex Schwazer provided the fastest 20 km result for the season, a 1:18:24 national record to win in Lugano in March. Other than this result, the season didn’t offer much in terms of results as only two Europeans were able to dip under 1:20. The other in addition to Schwazer, who opted to race both 20 km and 50 km in Barcelona, was new Russian star, just 20-year-old Stanislav Yemelyanov, who in fact was still 19 in Barcelona. The youngster, having completed a magnificent junior career with a gold at World Youth Championships in 2007, another gold at World Juniors in 2008 and finally a win from the 2009 European Junior Championships as well, only raced over 20 km distance for the first time in February 2010 for his fastest time of the year 1:19:43.

His winning time at the Russian National Championships was 1:20:49 before he registered a commanding win at the European Athletics Championships in 1:20:10, well ahead of Schwazer who won silver, his first medal in 20 km distance in major championships in addition to the 50 km Olympic gold and two world championships bronze medals (2005/2007). Portuguese João Vieira, 34 years old, was able to repeat his bronze medal finish from Goteborg in a season’s best 1:20:49 time in Barcelona. Irish Robert Heffernan reached his best ever finish with a fourth place in 1:21:00, just 11 seconds from the bronze.

50km Walk:

50 km wasn’t all about Russians either this time. Although a couple of favourites including Schwazer, racing for the second time at the championships and Norwegian Trond Nymark, the silver medallist in Berlin 2009, could not finish the race, one past favourite did come back to his top level in Barcelona.

Frenchman Yohann Diniz successfully defended his 50km walk title in Barcelona.

Frenchman Yohann Diniz, who finished fast in Goteborg 2006 to grab the gold 3:41:39 and was second in Osaka 2007, had suffered a couple of disappointing major championships after that. He was unable to finish at the Olympics in 2008 and despite a great 3:38:45 national record last year could only finish in 12^th place in Berlin at the World Championships. But this period came to an end in Barcelona where the reigning champion renewed his title to win comfortably in a season’s best 3:40:37, the fastest time in the world in 2010. The race for the remaining medals was not a tight one either. 32-year-old Pole Grzegorz Sudol finished in second place in a 3:42:24 personal best time finally grabbing his first major medal following a fourth place finish in Berlin 2009.

Russian Sergey Bakulin had competed in 20 km in Goteborg and placed fifth there, but in 50 km distance Barcelona was his first major race and immediately resulted in a medal. Bakulin set a 3:43:26 personal best bettering the old one 3:52:38 from 2009 by more than nine minutes winning a medal only in his fourth career race in 50 km. Robert Heffernan repeated his fourth place from the 20 km race completing a fine double at the European Championships, but still no medal for the Irishman. 3:45:30 national record, his second NR of the season, was some consolation for the seasoned athlete, who also competed for the first time in major champs over this distance.

Notable stats:

20 km walk

New entries on the European all time list:

21^st 1:18:24 Alex Schwazer ITA

2010 head-to-head between best Europeans:

João Vieira POR – Robert Heffernan IRL 2-0

Alex Schwazer ITA – Giorgio Rubino ITA 1-0

Career head-to-head between best Europeans:

João Vieira POR – Robert Heffernan IRL 15-12

Alex Schwazer ITA – Giorgio Rubino ITA 2-2

50 km walk

2010 head-to-head between best Europeans:

Yohann Diniz FRA – Grzegorz Sudol POL 1-0

Yohann Diniz FRA – Jesús Ángel García ESP 1-0

Grzegorz Sudol POL – Jesús Ángel García ESP 1-0

Yohann Diniz FRA – Sergey Kirdyapkin RUS 1-0

Yohann Diniz FRA – Alex Schwazer ITA 1-0

Yohann Diniz FRA – Trond Nymark NOR 1-0

Career head-to-head between best Europeans:

Yohann Diniz FRA – Grzegorz Sudol POL 3-2

Yohann Diniz FRA – Jesús Ángel García ESP 3-2

Jesús Ángel García ESP – Grzegorz Sudol POL 6-2

Sergey Kirdyapkin RUS – Yohann Diniz FRA 3-2

Yohann Diniz FRA – Alex Schwazer ITA 5-2

Yohann Diniz FRA – Trond Nymark NOR 3-2