RACE WALKER LEPE BACK WITH WIN
Spring Valley resident keeps eye on making U.S. Olympic team
After 13 months without competing due to the pandemic and canceled races, Spring Valley’s Celina Lepe returned to race walking and soon experienced a tight calf muscle.
Yet Lepe drew on some inner motivation to prevail with a personal best of 1 hour, 42 minutes, 4 seconds in the women’s 20K invitational on Sunday to put her on track for her Olympic Trials berth secured a year ago.
Lepe’s triumph was part of a race slate that included the USAFT Men’s 50K and Women’s 35K Race Walk Championships on the 1.25K course adjacent to the Trolley Square shopping center.
“The beginning of the race was not so fun,” said Lepe, who improved her personal best by 41 seconds. “My calf was really tight, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I started talking to myself and connected my spirit to my body, and before I knew it, that pain was gone.”
Lepe last competed in the same event conducted in January a year ago. This time, though, given pandemic protocol, no spectators were allowed.
“I started looking at all the other athletes out there, and I wanted to walk next to them,” said Lepe, 25, a Monte Vista High alum. “I’d catch up and say, ‘Good job.’ We all need support out there. Even though they didn’t know it, they were helping me.”
Added backing also came from her boyfriend and fellow competitor, Emmanuel “Natos” Corvera, the two-time defending men’s 20K champion, who has also qualified for the Olympic Trials.
Unlike Lepe, though, Corvera couldn’t overcome injury woes and dropped out with five kilometers to go because of hip and calf pains. This came after he recovered from COVID-19 suffered last June.
“I had to change my complete training program then. It was bit frustrating because I felt that I was taking all the proper precautions,” said Corvera, 26, of Spring Valley. “Besides that, how do you train when you don’t have a race as a carrot on the stick?”
On a winning day for couples, two-time women’s 50k champion Robyn Stevens added to her string of victories in the new 35K international distance (3:01:11), and her boyfriend, former El Cajon resident Nick Christie, won the men’s 50K (4:10:53).
“I’m excited for the first official 35K, so I can check that off,” said Stevens, 37, of Vacaville, who is accomplished at both 20K and 50K. “The training’s about the same. Mostly, it was getting back into the rhythm of racing again.”
Former El Cajon resident Katie Burnett was expected to challenge Stevens, but she was disqualified midway through the race.
It is forecast that the 35K will be adopted for men in place of the 50K, still on the next Olympic menu.
“I had to do some soul searching,” said Christie, 29, of Vacaville, who set the American course record (4:09:32) in 2018 but placed third last year (4:27:28). “Last year, I said that was my last 50K ever, but this could be the last 50K (here), and I really wanted to win it.”
Andres Gustafsson, a onetime Coronado resident, was disqualified early in the race, and returning runner-up Matthew Forgues, of Chula Vista, withdrew in the first lap without comment.
Stevens and Christie each earned $8,000.