Inês Henriques is a Portuguese race walker. Internationally, she has won bronze medals at the 2010 IAAF World Race Walking Cup and the 2010 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics. She represented Portugal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics and has competed at the World Championships in Athletics on eight occasions from 2001 to 2017.
She won at the Chihuahua City meeting of the 2012 IAAF World Race Walking Challenge in March.
In 2017, in London, she won the gold medal in the 50km walk event, held for the first time during the World Championships in Athletics. With her time of 4:05:56, she also set the world record for the event.
Medal record
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2017 London 50 km walk
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 2018 Berlin 50 km walk
Women Fitness President Ms. Namita Nayyar catches up with Inês Henriques, Portuguese race walker, World Champion and World record holder in the women 50km walk event here she talks about her diet and the success story.
Namita Nayyar:
In 2017, in London, you won the gold medal in the 50km walk event, held for the first time during the World Championships in Athletics and also set the world record for the event. Share your feelings & challenges in achieving this goal?
Inês Henriques:
In 2017, in London, you won the gold medal in the 50km walk event, held for the first time during the World Championships in Athletics and also set the world record for the event. Share your feelings & challenges in achieving this goal?
My first victory was achieving the 50km women race walk at the World Championship with all the same rights as in other competitions.
The momoent I started the competition, I knew that I would have to show all the world that we, women, have the same physyical and psychological capacity to perform with high quality the 50km race walk, so that the 50km women race walk would have continuity. To meet this big challenge, I had to achieve 3 objectives:
– Being the World Champion;
– Beat the world record;
– Doing less than 4hours06minutes, which was the minimum time established for men.
The preparation went well e I was physically and psychologically strong. I felet that everything could be possible, I felt confidente and happy because we were making history in world sports.
I followed all my coach’s instructions at the competition and everything went as we expected.
It was amazing. I was really worn out in the last quilometres but with a great joy, difficult to describe in words. I was reaching all the goals I had proposed myself. I was achieving the dream of my life, being the best in the world.. making history.
My coach was there when I crossed the finish line and the only thing we said to each othe was: “We did it!”
After 25 years working together we have reached the top. What I felt a this moment was the reward of many years of work and dedication.
Namita Nayyar:
Were your eyes always set on becoming a professional athlete? Share two incidents from the baby steps that led you to become a winner.
Inês Henriques:
I’ve started athletics in 1992. Since then I’ve always been dedicated to it. I started to have good results and I felt I could make progress much more so I had to work to achieve my goals.
My parents are from humble families with few possessions and everything they have is due to hard work.
I was raised knowing that I had to work hard to reach my goals. My parents “always gave me the fishing rod, but never the fish!”
I probably am who I am because of the way I was educated and also because I met my coach who has similar values to mine.
Full Interview is Continued on Next Page
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