Tingay & Montag crowned national champions as Montag breaks 18-year-old record

An 18-year-old national record has been decimated, as Tokyo Olympian Jemima Montag (Brent Vallance) wins the Oceania & Australian 20km Race Walking Championship in Adelaide this morning.

Walking at record pace within the first 5km, Montag finished the walk in 1:27:27 - 13 seconds ahead of Jane Saville's long standing record from 2004.

The win is the third consecutive national championship for Montag in the event, and together with her swift time, the title secures her automatic selection for the World Athletics Championships in Oregon in July.

“It feels surreal at the moment, that national record is something I have been thinking about for a few years, but we’ve had the pandemic and cancelled races. Often at times it hasn’t been the right weather or right conditions, it wasn’t what I had in mind but I could feel it was on in the first 5km," Montag said.

"Sometimes you have that fear of success where your coach is yelling out that the record is on today, which is scary because you have the feeling of not wanting to let anyone down.”

“It feels exciting to lock that spot in for Oregon, qualifying early and now we’ve got the next four or five months to put our heads down and train smart. I’ve started an intense medical post-graduate course, so being efficient with times and qualifying is important. It feels good to do the three-peat and to have so many of the emerging senior boys to walk with was really lucky.”

Montag won the event more than four minutes ahead of Tokyo teammate Rebecca Henderson (Simon Baker) (1:31:44) and six minutes before 2016 World Under 20 representative, Clara Smith (Nicole Fagan, 1:33:37) who took charge of her first ever 20km event as part of her resurgence in the sport.

Regarded as prodigious talent as a junior, Declan Tingay (Steve Tingay) won his maiden 20km title in 1:20:44, also meeting the World Championship qualifying standard to secure his spot on the team for Oregon.

Tingay, who placed 17th in Tokyo, was strategic in his approach, walking behind Kyle Swan for the first 15km, but asserted his dominance to finish with a 3 minute, 20 second personal best and almost a minute ahead of Swan's 1:21:39. Olympic 20km race walker Rhydian Cowley (Brent Vallance, 1:23:29) crossed the line behind New Zealand's Quentin Rew (1:22.23) but won the bronze medal at the Championships. 

“I didn’t really plan on walking that fast this morning, I had planned on qualifying for World Champs via the points system. To find a few extra gears today and knock the time out this early in the season is awesome," Tingay said. 

“It might mean I try to walk a bit quicker come World Championships and World come, and it might mean a trip to Europe sometime soon to see if I can lower that time again.”

Tingay's result has also secured the automatic selection spot for the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships, with the discretionary selections taking place this week. 

Another notable performance of the day was by Will Thompson (Brent Vallance) who placed sixth in the men's event. Still only 19, Thompson's walk was his first 20km event, and his time of 1:24:40 makes his result the fastest ever Australian debut. 

The Oceania & Athletics 20km Race Walking Championships also featured a 10km and 5km event for the country's up and coming junior talent. Olivia Sandery  coached by both Australia's most decorated track and field athlete Jared Tallent and Bob Cruise, took the women's 10km time in 46:35, just behind men's 10km winner Marcus Wakim (45:56). Both registered World Under 20 Championship qualifiers.

Full results can be found at here.

By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 13/2/2022