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Italy’s 2017 world bronze medalist Antonella Palmisano breaks Italian 10km race walk record in Modena

Palmisano produced the fastest clocking for 18 years in the 10km race walk when winning at Italy’s Endurance Festival Championships in Modena on Sunday (18) in 41:28.

Palmisano was contesting her third race in 15 days, following a world-leading 21:00.0 over 5000m in Trivio on 3 October and her 1:28:40 victory over 20km in Podebrady on 10 October.

The 29-year-old showed no signs of fatigue in Modena, though, and after a steady opening kilometre of 4:13 she picked up the pace and reached the half-way point in 20:50. She maintained that tempo for a few more kilometres and managed to move up a gear in the latter stages, covering the final kilometre in 4:04 to cross the finish line in 41:28.

Her winning time took 10 seconds off the previous Italian record, set 23 years ago by 1996 Olympic fourth-place finisher Rossella Giordano. 1993 world silver medallist Ileana Salvador had clocked 41:30 27 years ago but her time wasn’t officially recognised as an Italian record. Palmisano’s performance, however, is an improvement on both of those marks and takes her to sixth on the world all-time list. The last woman to cover the distance in a faster time was Norway’s Kjersti Tysse-Playzer, who clocked 41:16 in 2002.

“Today I wanted to have fun,” said Palmisano, whose previous best for the distance was 42:50, although she had also clocked 41:57.29 for 10,000m on the track. “It’s the first time I’ve done three races so close together, but I didn’t feel the fatigue from Podebrady in my legs. It wasn’t easy in the final two or three kilometres, but I pushed hard.”

Nicole Colombi, who represented Italy at last year’s World Championships, was second in 43:55. Francesco Fortunato won the men’s race in 39:06, moving him to third on the Italian all-time list.