28th June 2019
Walkers Poised for British Titles World Championship Spots
This Sunday (30 June) sees the British Grand Prix of Race Walking held at Leeds Roundhay Park incorporating the British 20km Championships, the Irish 20km Championships and the Official British Team Trial event for the IAAF World Athletics Championships.
The men’s race promises to be hotly contested, with the top two 20km race walkers in the UK, Tom Bosworth (Coached by: Andi Drake) and training partner Callum Wilkinson (Andi Drake) both taking to the road. Also, in contention for a podium place is fellow Leeds based athlete Cameron Corbishley (Andi Drake) who has had an impressive start to the season including a standout debut 50km performance in Dudince, in which he clocked 3:53:20, a British U23 record.
His time was also the second fastest ever and in doing so, secured automatic selection for the World Championships in Doha this Autumn. Bosworth, Wilkinson and Corbishley will also be looking to build on their recent success at the European Race Walking Cup in Alytus in Lithuania where they took team silver, the first medal won by a British team since 1967 at European or World level.
Bosworth heads the British rankings with his 80.53 when finishing fourth in the European Cup in Alytus last month and will look to put his 25th place in the IAAF Race Walking Challenge behind him as he looks to win his fourth consecutive British Grand Prix. Wilkinson has since taken the British 10km record from Bosworth clocking 39.31 in Slovakia and set a new British U23 record when winning the U23 10,000 metres title in Bedford in last weekend in 40.29.32. Both Wilkinson and Corbishley who clocked a personal best of 85.45 in Alytus will both be looking to sharpen up ahead of the European Under 23 Championships in Gavle Sweden next month.
In the women’s race, Welsh athlete, Heather Lewis (Chris Jones) will start as favourite after her strong start to the season, in which she set a new 20km PB of 95:04 at the European Athletics Race-Walking Permit Meeting in Podebrady. However, Lewis’ team mate Bethan Davies, is also racing well and is a very strong contender for the British title. Davies is currently number two on the UK All-Time list after clocking 91.53 in 2018 and is reigning British champion. Both women will be looking to achieve the World Championship qualification time of 93:30 in this race.
In the Junior Men’s 10km Chris Snook (Verity Snook) who was fifth in the European Cup will be targeting the British Athletics qualifying time of 43.00 for the European Junior Championships.
For more details visit the event website at https://nationalendurancecentre.co.uk/grand-prix
Or head to the British Athletics Facebook page to watch the live stream from Sunday 30 June at 09:00.