Hosts Italy took team gold in the concluding event of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Race Walking Team Championships after their 2008 Olympic champion Alex Schwazer - back after a three-and-a half year ban for a positive EPO test - won the 50 kilometre race on the streets of Rome.
His colleagues Marco De Luca and Teodorico Caporaso were respectively fourth and fifth in the capital to give fans in the 2024 Olympic bidding city something to cheer.
Australia’s Jared Tallent, who became Olympic champion in March after Russia’s Sergey Kirdyapkin was stripped of the London 2012 title for doping, finished second in 3 hours 42 min 36 sec, more than three minutes behind the 31-year-old home walker, who clocked 3:39.00 after taking the lead after 15km and gradually extending it.
Bronze went to Igor Glavan of Ukraine in 3:44.02, while the 34-year-old De Luca and Caporaso set personal bests of 3:44.47 and 3:48.29.
It was a historic race, as American Erin Talcott became the first woman to contest the 50km at these Championships.
Talcott, who has a 2012 personal best of 4:33.22, was the last of the 40 finishers in 4:51.08, more than six minutes behind the nearest competitor, Ozan Pamuk of Turkey, who set a national record of 4:44.46.
The 37-year-old US walker was taking advantage of the temporary opportunity given to women to race with men over 50km until such time as their own 50km races, which were sanctioned at last year’s IAAF Council meeting, are set up.
The result was a suitable reward for Rome, which stepped in as host four months ago after the event was taken away from the intended venue, Cheboksary, following the suspension of Russia by the IAAF amid allegations of state-sponsored doping.
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