3 June 2016 

The British 20km Race Walking Olympic Trials will be held on Sunday at Woodhouse Moor in Leeds as part of the British Grand Prix of Race Walking.

UK record holder Tom Bosworth (coach: Andi Drake) will look to secure his place on the plane to Rio when he lines up on home soil. Bosworth has had a major breakthrough this year with his 80.41 time, which is inside the Olympic qualifying standard. The Leeds-based athlete needs to finish in the top two British athletes to secure his selection for his first Olympic Games.

Bosworth is joined in the 20km by Dominic King (George Nibre) who has already secured his place for Rio over 50km and will be looking to bounce back from his disqualification in the 20km World Race Walking Team Championships in Rome last month.

In the women’s 20km race, Welsh record holder Bethan Davies (Drake) will be looking to target the Olympic qualifying standard of 93.00. She set her Welsh record of 96.07 last October in Hillingdon and was in great form in the spring setting a British record when winning at the Indoor British Championships over 3000 metres clocking 12.44.99. This moved her to second on the UK all-time list over 10km with 44.59 in Coventry. Davies’ compatriot Heather Lewis (Coach: Martin Bell) will be looking to improve her personal best of 99:03 set in 2015.

The junior 10km race will see a host of Britain’s best juniors targeting qualifying times for the IAAF World Junior Championships and the European Youth Championships.

Guy Thomas (Martin Rush) moved to ninth on the UK all-time junior list with his 42.55 after finishing 19^th in Rome last month. Leeds resident Cameron Corbishley (Drake) sits just behind Thomas on the all-time list in 11^th with his 43.05 from Podebrady in April. They will both be looking to target the World Juniors qualifying time of 42.20. World Team Championship fourth placer Callum Wilkinson (Mick Graham) sits this one out ahead of the U20 Championships and Trials in Bedford in two weeks.

In the junior women’s 10km Emma Achurch (Steve Arnold) will be looking to build on her 23^rd place in Rome and the personal best of 47.49 she equalled in April. The Leicester athlete will target the qualifying standard of 47.00 in Leeds.

Under 18’s Chris Snook (Verity Snook) (46:22) and Tom Partington (Steve Partington) (46:41) have both already clocked times inside the European Youth qualifying standard of 46.50 but will look for further improvement to strengthen their cases for selection to Tbilisi. Sophie Lewis Ward (Noel Carmody) was inside the UK qualifying time of 24.30, when she took a fine second place in 23:36 in Podebrady and she too will be looking for another confident display in the 5km event.

The action starts at 9.30am and spectators will be able to see the athletes all the way on the compact 500 metres out and back circuit.

Further details of the event can be found at

https://sites.google.com/site/britishgrandprixofracewalking/home

Live updates will be provided on Twitter @leedswalk