Preview: The best of Europe line up for continental glory

Defending champion Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia will once again be the favourite in the men's 50km walk at the European Cup Race Walking in Olhao on Saturday. (Picture Alliance)

THE word ‘comeback’ comes to mind for those on the line at the 9th European Cup of Race Walking in Olhaõ, Portugal, on Saturday.

At least six top walkers who have been mostly inactive over the last two years will be hoping to make waves by the seaside on the Algarve – although there are others in top form ready to deny them.

Five cracking races start with the men’s 50k at 7.30am and ready to thrill those watching a promenade like never seen before on the coastal town.

Franciso Javier Fernandez (Spain), Giorgio Rubino (Italy) along with team-mate Elisa Rigaudo, Melanie Seeger (Germany) and a Russian trio of Sergey Morozov, Vladimir Kanaykin and Denis Nizhegorodov have enough major medals between them to fill a jeweller’s window.

But while they have languished in the shadows, the likes of Vera Sokolova (Russia) and Matej Toth (Slovakia) have taken major strides to an illustrious CV.

Men’s 50k

The long race will literally heat up in the second half.

Once the sun rises over the sea, the thermometer is expected to go north of 25 degrees, so that by around 35k those with eyes on gold will be battling the sun as well as each other.

Denis Nizhegorodov knows all about that moment when a walker hits empty and joins the world of the living dead.

The Russian was reduced to a painful crawl as he entered the Olympic stadium in Athens seven years ago – but still managed silver.

He fared much better en route to first, and the current world record at the IAAF World Cup on home turf in Cheboksary in 2008. There was no one to touch him either at the last European Cup in Metz two years ago – both were warm days – but Nizhegorodov was in better form back then.

If he is to be headed, the likely challenge comes from team-mates Denis Strelkov, Andrey Ruzavin, and Igor Yerokhin – all walkers with a top pedigree. What price the team trophy headed back east again?

If anyone in red falters, Poland’s Rafal Augustyn is coming off a sharp 1:20:57 20k at home last month that should stand him in good stead over the longer distance.

Italian Marco De Luca has top 10 background, and if Norwegian Trond Nymark is in the mood, he also has the necessary skills to repeat an excellent second at the World Championships in Berlin two years ago.

Portugal has entered a solid quartet – and one should never underestimate home advantage, especially when a last 20k in blistering conditions needs all the help it can get.

Slovakian Matej Toth is the man in form this season and will go in as one of the top bets in the men's 20km walk.

This is set to be the most intriguing race of the day – and also the hardest fought.

Coming back from a long lunch and a 4.30pm start are dignitaries and spectators. Coming back from a spell on the sidelines is world record holder Vladimir Kanaykin, Sergey Morozov, who at 1:16:43 holds the fastest unofficial mark of all time, and former European champion Francisco Javier Fernandez.

The walker with the 2011 best time is Kanaykin who shot around Sochi in the February Russian championships in 1:19:14 where he won. Not far behind was Morozov in second and 1:20:08. Fernandez is on the rankings second page with a lowly 1:22:17 by world standards – but the Spaniard knows all about heat, and has been training hard since his March race.

For all that, the man in form is the former student of journalism – Matej Toth from Slovakia – who came out of nowhere to win the IAAF World Cup 50k in Chihuahua last year – and will add to his own headlines with a win here.

Whereas most of the men’s senior fields in the two races have peaked at either 50k or 20k so far this year, Toth has done both – and in major competition races.

He walked a scintillating 3:39:46 PB in Dudince on home soil at the end of March, and 14 days later rattled off a very quick 1:20:16 up country from Olhaõ at Rio Maior in the IAAF Challenge.

The 28-year-old is clearly in the form of his life, and for this one – his fifth appearance in the European Cup – Toth has come down from two weeks at altitude. The Slovakian was a modest ninth two years ago in Metz – anything but a medal this time will surely be a disappointment.

Treading on the quartet’s heels should be Ireland’s Robbie Heffernan – always good for a top-six finish. In tandem should be defending champion Giorgio Rubino from Italy – but coming back from injury – and Germany’s Andre Hohne.

It’s a fair bet the other three Russians will be in the mix, and Joao Vieira (1:22:44) – the fastest Portuguese this year – will undoubtedly be giving it a go at home.

Women 20k

This race also has a world record holder on the start line – but unlike the men’s 20k and 50k – Vera Sokolova set her mark this year.

Italy's Elisa Rigaudo will be hopeful of a top five finish in the women's 20km walk.

For the first time, the necessary judges were in place for the Russian Winter Championships in February, and the 23-year-old was not about to pass up an opportunity to step into the limelight hogged by world and Olympic champion Olga Kaniskina.

Sokolova stopped the watch at 1:25:08 – and there are 15 in the men’s 20k that precedes this, whose PB suggests they would see only her back in a mixed race.

At a stroke, she removed 33 seconds from the previous best, as well as comrade Olimpiada Ivanova from top entry in the record book.

But Anisa Kirdyapkina will want to claw back the single second that made her second fastest of all time when she just failed to catch Sokolova in Sochi.

The Russian town is also a seaside, so there’s no reason to suggest both won’t be able to cope with the evening heat in Olhaõ. But if both should falter, there’s a clutch of talented thirty-somethings out to prove a point.

Elisa Rigaudo (Italy) and Melanie Seeger (Germany) had new maternal duties that kept them off the circuit for the last two years, and defending champion Maria Vasco at 35 is determined to put the bitter disappointment of a DNF at the Barcelona 2010 European Athletics Championships behind her. Ireland’s Olive Loughnane should also be a top-10 finisher.

The one team race where Russia could get a stiff challenge comes here from the host nation.

Vera Santos (1:29:55 in 2011) leads a talented quartet including former World Championship bronze medallist Susana Feitor.

The race also has the oldest competitor of the day. In stark contrast to the various full-time athletes on show, 44-year-old Lisa Kehler manages to hold down a job as a full-time doctor in England while raising four children – and also finds the time to race well enough to make the Great Britain team.

Junior men’s 10k

The expected Russian clean sweep has not always gone according to plan in the European Cup.

On paper, the trio of Pavel Parshin, Dementiy Cheparev and Damir Baybikov should have more than enough on just about everybody else – but there are always judges to upset podium predictions.

In Metz two years ago, virtually unknown Veli-Matti Partanen from Finland stole into snatch bronze as the red discs appeared like a rash, so that Partanen headed a faltering Denis Strelkov at the finish.

Both have graduated to the senior 20k ranks, so the likely challenge to all things Russian should come from 2009 World Youth Championships 10,000m gold medallist Hagen Pohle.

The German finished fourth in Metz when he was 17 but led his country to team bronze.

His 42:13 this year already stands up well in the rankings, but Parshin heads the list (41:18) and Cheparev’s 42:11 suggests all four will be tearing past the 50k walkers when the junior race gets going an hour-and-a-quarter into the senior event.

Junior women 10k

No sooner does one Russian charge for the line finish than another takes its place.

The junior women will also be keeping the 50k walkers company as their race starts just after the junior men head for the showers.

Hopefully, the tiring men won’t be too put off by the sight of the three Russian girls hurtling around the loop – but Svetana Vailyeva (42:43) and Yelena Lashminova (43:41), based on their times at the Sochi winter championships in February – could give the rest of the field the best part of a kilometre start – and still win.

They look odds-on to add to Russia’s 72 European Cup medals – double that of second-place Spain with a mere 33.

Even team-mate Olga Dubrovina (47:34) will have a hard task to keep up with her friends after the first 500 metres.

And assuming the leading pair avoids the DQ cards, Italian Anna Clemente (46:42) should give Dubrovina a run for her money.

Ireland also has a solid European background at this level, and 17-year-old newcomer Kate Veale’s sharp 46:43 bodes well for a top five finish.