France’s Aurelion Quinion was the standout performer at the Lusatian International Race Walking Meeting, a World Athletics World Race Walking Tour Bronze event, in Zittau, Germany on Saturday (28).
In what was essentially a time trial with only lapped race walkers for company, Quinion won the 35km race walk in a French record of 2:25:57, smashing his previous record of 2:28:46 from the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene.
Quinion, who was disqualified at the recent World Athletics Championships in Budapest, elevates himself up to tenth on the European all-time list for a distance which was only introduced onto the major championships programme in 2022.
With his closest expected challenger Carl Dohmann from Germany dropping out just before the 30km checkpoint, Quinion ended up winning by more than 20 minutes over his nearest rival.
A bronze medallist at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Espoo, Quinion’s compatriot Camille Moutard was also among the winners in Zittau.
Moutard won the 20km race walk with a gun-to-tape 1:31:36 to finish comfortably ahead of the Slovakian duo of Hanna Burzalova (1:33:53) and Maria Katerina Czakova (1:36:39).
In the most competitive senior race of the day, Mexico’s Isaac Palma won the men’s 20km race walk in 1:21:18 ahead of Poland’s Maher Ben Hlima (1:21:39) and the fast-finishing Dominik Cerny (1:21:42) who covered the last one kilometre circuit in 3:53 to ensure a podium finish.
Germany’s Leo Kopp was the best domestic performer in fourth in 1:21:51.
Full results here.