China's Yang Jiayu and Ma Zhenxia (© AFP / Getty Images)
Brazil’s Caio Bonfim and China’s Yang Jiayu, overall tour winners of 2024, will lead deep 20km fields at the Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix, the first World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold meeting of 2025, in the Chinese city of Taicang this weekend.
Both the men’s and women’s 20km races will be held on Saturday (1), followed by a marathon race walk mixed relay on Sunday (2).
Bonfim secured podium finishes in each of the five races he competed in on the tour last year, including setting a Brazilian record of 1:17:44 with a third-place finish in Taicang and taking the 20km silver medal at the Olympic Games in Paris in 1:19:09.
The consistent 33-year-old further bettered the national record to 1:17:37 in Kobe, Japan, two weeks ago and is ready to repeat his winning feat in Taicang in 2017.
World and Olympic gold medallist Massimo Stano will also return to Taicang where he achieved a career best of 1:17:26 last March, which also stands as the Italian record. He went on to finish fourth with a 1:19:12 clocking in Paris and his last outing was a 2:24:19 victory over 35km in Dublin last December.
Perseus Karlstrom is another serious contender in the men’s race. The 34-year-old European champion owns a fast personal best of 1:17:39 set two years ago in Budapest when he took a silver medal at the World Championships. The vastly experienced Swedish athlete also notched a 1:18:49 victory at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya last April and has three World Championships bronze medals to his name, grabbed in both 20km and 35km events.
The field also includes Italy’s Francesco Fortunato, who recently renewed the long-standing world indoor 5000m race walk record at the Italian Indoor Championships in Ancona with a clocking of 17:55.65 last Saturday. They will be joined by African champion Misgana Wakuma of Ethiopia, whose PB of 1:19:31 was set when finishing sixth at the Paris Olympic Games, as well as Australia’s Rhydian Cowley, a 1:18:33 performer who finished fifth in Taicang last year.
The Chinese entries will be led by defending champion Zhang Jun, who edged Stano in front of the finish line to claim the title last year. The winning mark of 1:17:26 also stands as his career best and the Chinese champion will be keen to prove his worth following a lacklustre journey to Paris last August when he clocked 1:19:56 to settle for 10th place.
Other Chinese men to watch include Li Yandong (1:17:47), Wang Zhaozhao (1:17:48), Qian Haifeng (1:18:51) and Wang Kaihua, who set the Chinese record of 1:16:54 in 2021, but has failed to dip under 1:20 ever since.
World record-holder and Olympic champion Yang has placed second in Taicang over 20km a total of four times but has not yet managed to step on top of the podium. Last year she had to settle for second place after a photo finish separated her and her compatriot Ma Zhenxia, as they both clocked 1:26:07.
Five months later, 2017 world champion Yang produced a convincing victory to claim the Olympic gold medal in Paris in 1:25:54, which was her quickest time since registering the world record of 1:23:49 in 2021.
The 26-year-old Ma, world U20 champion in 2016, will also toe the line on Saturday. She trimmed 36 seconds off her PB to take the win last year and went on to finish second at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in 1:27:55. But she failed to compete to her best level in her Olympic debut, placing 11th in Paris in 1:29:15.
Unlike Yang, who has already earned a wild card for the World Championships in Tokyo as a 2024 tour winner, Ma will be more motivated to vie for the victory, since the race will also serve as the first leg of the country’s qualifying event and only the best placed Chinese athlete can secure a berth for Tokyo.
Australia’s Jemima Montag is another leading contender for the title, alongside the Chinese duo. The 27-year-old set an Oceanian record of 1:26:25 to finish third at the Paris Games and grabbed a second Olympic bronze medal in the mixed relay event together with Rhydian Cowley.
The in-form Montag has remained unbeaten in 2025, winning the Australian 20km Race Walking Championships in 1:27:47 two weeks ago and also scoring victories over the 5000m and 10,000m race walk in Melbourne and Canberra, respectively.
The women’s field also includes Colombia’s Lorena Arenas, the Tokyo Olympics runner-up who achieved a national record of 1:27:03 to finish fourth in Paris, plus two-time European champion Antigoni Ntrismpioti of Greece (1:28:12 PB), and Clemence Beretta, who set a French record of 1:28:44 en route to placing fifth in Taicang last year.
Vincent Wu for World Athletics
