Concordia hosts Race-Walking Clinic

By: Stacey King

(2/3/07 - Track and Field) IRVINE - An hour before Concordia’s Invitational began, a Race-walking clinic was led by Chris Rael, member of the U.S. National Race-Walking team who competes in 50 km (31 miles) event.

Rael is also the USA Track & Field Southern California Association Chair for Race Walking.

“What I proposed to the national office was to start a race walk initiative to do an outreach to NAIA schools,” he said. “I’d hold clinics to any athletes interested.”

The first of three clinics was today. The other two will occur at Azusa Pacific University in the upcoming weeks.

“The whole point is to get more people interested in race-walking. If we get them interested in college, then when they get out of college they may still have a desire to train. They can vie for the U.S. race-walking team. Hopefully try for the Olympic trials. Most athletes on the Olympic teams came from NAIA.”

“We target here because no one from southern California made it to nationals,” Rael said. “There’s no reason we can’t produce race-walkers here.”

Rael said the purpose of today’s clinic was to “introduce them to the event: how to race-walk and the judging. Then throw them into the race. They have experience [now] and know what to expect.”

“For beginners, they all did well…Both leaders were on pace for nationals, but started to drop off with three laps to go,” Rael said. “With more practice, they should be able to get the standard.”

Paul Grieve, normally a javelin thrower for Concordia, participated in the race-walking clinic and race.

“I felt like I was runway modeling for two miles,” Grieve said. “I gave a decent effort. It was nice to have team members with me.”

It was Grieve’s first time ever competing on the track. He finished first in today’s event with a time of 18:37.02. He said he’d “give it a shot next weekend.” The national qualifying time is 17:15.

Luis DeLaVega, who normally competes in 400 meter run or 800 meter run, also tried race-walking. “It’s a lot harder than it looks,” DeLaVega said. “It’s painful for hips and shins. It was a good experience. With a little big of work we can do good things. It’s as painful as other races.”

Sandra Prado said, “I’m not used to walking, it was funny. “It was interesting. I might try again just to see if I can improve. It was my first time, I had an ok time.”

3000 Meter Race Walk results:

Paul Grieve 18:37.02
Luis DeLaVega 19:42.25
Sandra Prado 20:39.74