Victorian Rhydian Cowley and South Australian Claire Woods have won the Australian Winter Race Walking Championships, in Adelaide.
It's the perfect tune up for the two athletes, with the next step, taking on the rest of the world in Doha, having also been selected to wear the green and gold at the World Championships later this month.
They will compete in the 20km Race Walk on October 5 and the 50km Race Walk on 29 September respectively.
In dry but windy conditions in Adelaide, Rhydian won the 20km Australian Championship in 1:26.30, with Kyle Swan (Vic) finishing second with a time of 1:31.43 and Adam Garganis (Vic) in third with 1:32.12.
“A really good hit out with Doha just a month away for me,” Cowley said.
“I’ve had a few interruptions recently with my brother’s wedding and a couple of other things, so it’s nice to blowout the cobwebs.”
These interruptions didn’t appear to bother the 28 year-old though, who appears to be peaking at just the right time.
“And better yet, it’s my first Australian Championship in over 8 years – so I’m honoured to be involved in such great history.”
Two time olympian Claire Woods comfortably won the women’s 20km event in 1:44.55. Victorian Tracey Feiner from Victoria was second in 1:51.21, while Amanda Barendregt from New South Wales finished third in 2.00.40.
Woods is married to one of Australia's greatest athletes Jared Tallent, and it seems their two year old child nearly caused some disruptions.
“I was seriously under the weather last night, my two year old (Harvey) passed on a nice little bug to me, which had me up most of last night – so I’m happy to have been out here,”
“Last night when I went to bed I wasn’t coming, but luckily we live about 2km from here, so I woke up this morning and got a couple of bits of dry toast into me and fronted up,”
Winners in other age groups from the day:
U20 Men (10km)
U20 Women (10km)
U18 Men (10km)
U18 Women (5km)
Other results from the day can be seen here: https://www.athletics.com.au/events/40660/
