Men's 50K Walk

Final

"Team Clausen'' was out in force - 13 of them, family, friends, fans and admirers - cheering Curt Clausen, Stevens Point Wisconsin's own, in the 50-kilometer race walk at the VIII World Championships of Track and Field, this morning along 86th Street, outside Commonwealth Stadium.

And all that encouragement paid off in a big way.

The 33-year-old Clausen, a 1986 alumnus of Stevens Point High School and 1990 Duke University grad, came up with the second best performance of his decade-and-a-half career in race walking with a solid seventh-place finish, clocked in three hours, 50 minutes and 46 seconds, competing against the best walkers on this planet, in the longest, toughest footrace in the World Championship meet.

This was a 48-man battle over 31 miles, 120 yards, in which these athletes not only dueled each other but had to pay careful attention to proper technique, requiring constant contact with the pavement, and a straightened advancing knee on every stride.

Clausen performed notably, in difficult heat and over a slightly crowned roadway. In his thick portfolio of achievements over the years, it was topped only by his fourth-place performance in the 50K at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain.

Knee surgery slowed him last year, Olympic year, a case of unfortunate timing, and he wound up a disappointed 22nd in Sydney. So this became a sweet return to top form.

"I'm just happy to be back (among the leaders),'' said Clausen. "This makes up for a lot of (Olympic) disappointment.''

The only faster 50K he'd ever done was the 3:48.04 at the 1999 World Cup race in France.

Among other things, Clausen was the highest-placing male finisher for the United States team, in an event over 200 meters, at the World Championships.

While he didn't win a medal for his seventh-place performance - just 8:38 back of Polish champion Robert Korzeniowski's 3:42:08 - he did earn a $5,000 check from the International Association of Athletics Federations.

"I am so very, very proud of Curt," said his mother, Mrs. Virginia Clausen of Stevens Point. "We've come a long way to support him and it's certainly been worth the trip,'' said Rick Koehler, who'd been Clausen's Big Brother years ago.

Five Clausen aunts, two cousins, and three others from the Stevens point area rounded out the "Team Clausen'' entourage.

Clausen went out strongly, covering 10K in 45:59 and 20K in 1:30:40.

He stayed close to the lead pack for much of the first two hours, dropped back for a while after he struggled with knee trouble, but gathered new energy and came back strongly.

When he walked the final meters of the long race, inside the big stadium, he seemed far fresher than most of his competitors, some of whom needed medical attention.

"I got an early warning (on technique, from one of the judges) and that got me a little concerned,'' said Clausen. "But I didn't know how to make a correction because I thought I was walking correctly all along.

"Then, maybe around 30K (18.6 miles), my right knee started catching. I just tried to walk my way through it and gradually get myself back into the race.

"I think I came pretty strongly over the last 12K (7.2 miles.) I was feeling pretty good at the end. By that time, I was feeling strong as anybody in the race.''

Philip Dunn, Clausen's teammate and training partner at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., walked a strong race, too, placing 14th in a career-best time of 3:56:33.

Taking the other medals behind Korzeniowsksi, who'd won both te 20K and 50K walks at the Sydney Olympics, were Spain's Jesus Angel Garcia (3:43:07) and Mexico's Edgar Hernandez (3:46:12.)

Latvia's Algars Fadejevs (3:46:20), Russia's Vladimir Potemin (3:46:53) and Spain's Valenti Massana (3:48:28) were the only other walkers ahead of Clausen.

The judging was consistent and firm - resulting in disqualifications, or DQs, for 10 of the original 48.

Poland, Spain, Italy, France and the U.S. were the only nations putting two walkers in the top 14.

Next up for Clausen: an early September trip to the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, where he walk the 20K.

That's 12.4 miles, but to these distance-hardened racewalking athletes, it's a mere sprint. /Elliott Denman/

Copyright© 2001, Track & Field News