Maria Perez in Podebrady (© Sona Maleterova)
All roads lead to Podebrady for the European Race Walking Team Championships – a World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold meeting – on Sunday (18).
The spa town in the Czech Republic hosts Europe’s finest for the third time in a row. There are races at 20km and 35km, but the outstanding duel of the day could well be the women’s race at the longer distance.
Spain’s double world champion Maria Perez aims for back-to-back titles after winning two years ago in a world record of 2:37:15. But she faces 2021 Olympic 20km race walk champion Antonella Palmisano, who is making her debut at 35km.
As well as Perez, the Italian lines up against Antigoni Ntrismpioti: double gold medallist at the 2022 European Championships in Munich. The Greek eyes a third successive title after winning the inaugural 35km in 2021 before dropping down to win the 20km in 2023.
Even so, top of the 2025 list so far is Palmisano’s teammate Eleonora Giorgi with a PB of 2:41:54, set in Turkiye in February. Second best on 2025 times for this race is a third Italian, Federica Curiazzi with 2:41:54.
Spain’s Laura Garcia-Caro won’t have to worry about Lyudmila Olyanovska pipping her on the line this time. Last year’s European 20km race walk bronze medallist, who overtook a startled Garcia-Caro inches before the finish line in Rome, goes in the 20km. The Ukrainian earned team silver in the women’s 20km in 2023 and has already posted 1:28:28 in Dudince this year.
However, she’s not the fastest 2025 athlete in this race. That honour belongs to Spain’s Antia Chamosa with 1:27:55 at the end of March posted at her country’s national championships.
Yet another Italian, Alexandrina Mihai, is third ranked with a PB of 1:28:57, recorded at the Italian Championships at the end of March. At only 21, her country’s production line of top race walkers looks set to continue.
In the men’s 35km, Massimo Stano is odds-on favourite. The Olympic 20km gold medallist in Sapporo four years ago posted a telling 37:33.03 over 10,000m on home soil last month. It shattered the long-standing European best set by Spain’s Francesco Fernandez in 2008.
Before that, Stano clocked a sharp 1:18:28 in March at the Taicang leg of the Race Walking Tour. In December, his 2:24:19 in Ireland for 35km was enough to give him options at September’s World Championships in Tokyo.
That said, Christopher Linke won the 20km here in 2017; and was second in 2023 at 35km while setting a German record of 2:24:40 at Dudince in March.
Spain's Miguel Angel Lopez also lines up. The 2015 world champion is now 36, like Linke, but did record a sprightly 2:27:55 on home soil in March.
European champion Perseus Karlstrom is entered, but the two-time winner at 20km for this competition is keeping options open by also entering the 20km.
Ahead of the Swede on race rankings are Dominik Cerny from the Slovak Republic, who set a 2:26:31 PB in Dudince, and Stano’s teammates Matteo Giupponi (2:27:18, likewise from Dudince) and Riccardo Orsoni (2:27:20 at the Italian Championships this year).
Italy comes to the fore in the men’s 20km too. Francesco Fortunato plans to defend his title, and following the 1:18:49 PB he set in Taicang earlier this year, few would bet against him making it a double.
Depending on where Karlstrom lines up, chances are Andrea Cosi, with a season’s best of 1:20:42, will chase the leader to the line.
European silver medallist Paul McGrath is the Spanish team’s main hope. He has yet to post a 2025 time, but a 1:17:55 PB to go with an emphatic silver at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships last year suggests either Karlstom or Fortunato – or both – face a challenge.
As one can imagine from their numerous mentions, Spain and Italy, who swept all but one of the titles – individual and team – at the 2023 races, are set to dominate yet again.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics
