Announcement
PSJA sixteen year old High School junior Alex Chavez felt that being one of the top mile junior racewalkers in the country would not help him at Sunday’s 10K World Cup Trials in New York. This was an endurance race where he was ranked forth and considered an underdog by more than two minutes to the 3rd place ranked junior and only the top three would make the World Cup Championship.
High school senior Trevor Barron of Pennsylvania, forth place at last years World Youth 10K Racewalk held in Italy, ranked 1st going into this race. Ranked second was Tyler Sorronsen of California, followed by Maine High School senior Mathew Forgues, all of which had been training at high altitude in Arizona during part of the past six months. Alex longed for this type of training but the best he could do was to go up and down I Road and over and down the flood levies.
Coach A.C. Jaime felt that arriving in New York a day before the racewalk was absolutely essential, for a new course, unfamiliar to all, had been selected by the race director.
Nothing good was heard from Alex and the other racewalkers that arrived early to work out on the new course. The two kilometer course started at a parking lot in one school with a turn around point at another schools parking lot with many turns in between. It also quickly became apparent to Coach Jaime that New York’s heavy snows and recent torrential rains had taken their toll on the new course, for the roadway and parking lot were littered with pot holes.
The top racewalkers from throughout the USA, led by two time USA Olympian Tim Seaman, started arriving early for the race on Sunday. Juniors were to walk a 10K while seniors were attempting to qualify for the 20K racewalk championship.
Trevor Barron immediately jumped out at the sound of the gun and soon proved to all that he expects to be a strong contender for the gold medal at next months Junior World Cup Championship in Chihuahua Mexico. Tim Seaman’s intensions were soon evident as he began pacing Tyler, who is expected to be a top contender at the August IAAF Youth Olympics in Singapore, to a second place finish leaving Alex and Mathew to fight it out for the third place spot on the World Cup Championship 10K USA Team.
Nineteen year old Mathew Forgues, a 2008 Junior World Cup participant who will be walking for an Ohio college on a full scholarship next year, had the upper hand on Alex when it came to 10K walks. He had beaten Alex at all four prior 10K walks where he and Alex had competed together, the last one by nearly three minutes in Oregon last June. On the other hand, Alex had proven superior to Mathew in the one mile walks having outraced Mathew on all previous three one mile encounters, but today was not a one mile walk and Alex knew it.
The first casualty of the day among the sixty-three elite racewalkers was America’s top women 20K racewalker, Teresa Vaill, who pulled out with a swollen knee shortly after the first three laps followed by three others that were unable to finish their race.
The one thing no one had even dreamed about was a slight incline that started halfway through the course that somewhat simulated the small floodway inclines that exist along I Road in Pharr. Alex has walked that path many times in the past year and while he lost an average of eight seconds every time he went up the race incline today, he was nevertheless able to make up the time coming down. It soon became evident that while many were complaining and unable to walk at their expected pace, Alex was not only walking well, but was well ahead of his pace.
However, Mathew had no intensions of letting Alex win the race and, as evidenced from the racewalk video shown that evening after the race, the two good friends were walking together shoulder to shoulder through out the first eight kilometers. They made their move at the beginning of their ninth lap with Alex gaining only four seconds on Mathew by the turn around point but Alex mile pace experience came into play on the last one kilometer. He was able to bring his one kilometer lap time down from his race average 4:39 to 4:25 to outpace Mathew by twenty seconds at the finish line. He came home with a personal 10K best time of 47:19 and earned the right to represent the USA at next months Junior World Cup Championship in Chihuahua, Mexico.