Tóth leads Slovakia team at the European Cup Race Walking

Matej Toth will spearhead the Slovakian team at the European Cup Race Walking in Olhao, Portugal, on 21 May.

The 2010 World Race Walking Cup 50km winner Matej Tóth will lead the Slovakia team at the European Cup Race Walking in the Algarve town of Olhão in Portugal on 21 May.

The 28-year-old is in the middle of a fantastic season, having won over 50km at the European Athletics Race Walking Permit Meeting in his home town of Dudince in March, where he crossed the line in a national record and 2011 European-leading road time of 3:39:46.

Last month, Tóth carried his form over to 20km at the IAAF Race Walking Challenge meeting in Rio Maior, Portugal, where he finished with a personal best of 1:20:16 and it’s the shorter distance he’ll contest when he returns to Portugal in just under three weeks time.

Tóth has traditionally contested the 20km at the European Cup Race Walking and Olhão will be his fifth appearance at the event. However, his best finish is a modest ninth two years ago when the Cup was in the French city of Metz.

He will spend much of the two weeks at a training camp in High Tatras mountains, near the Slovakian and Polish border.

Tóth will be accompanied in the men’s 20km by Anton Kucmin. In the men’s 50 km, Milos Batovsky and Dusan Majdan while represent Slovakian interests while Maria Czakova will compete in the women’s 20km.

In junior men’s 10km, the Slovakian trio will be Patrik Spevak, Marcel Faber and Peter Tichy Jr.

Tichy is the son of a well-known Slovakian walker by the same name who competed over 50km at the 1994 and 1998 European Championships and 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games.