This is Elliott Denman’s column at Race Walking.The 1956 Olympic, historic 50k RW distance, Elliott has written for my publications and websites since 1990 about the race and other sporting events, including the Olympics and World Champs.
MARATHON RACE
NEXT ON THE GLOBAL AGENDA?
By ELLIOT DENMAN
The Lord has spoken… and many people are paying close attention.
This Lord is Sebastian Coe, who won two gold medals in the Olympic 1,500 meters after serving as a Conservative MP.
Falmouth-Camborne in Cornwall, after receiving a Life Peerage in 2000, presiding over the hugely successful London 2012 Olympic Games and now chairing World Athletics, the global governing body of the ‘main sport of the Olympic Games’, continues to say: , “Just call me Seb, please.”
Of course, the sport known as track and field in the United States is “track and field” to the rest of the planet, but Seb’s broad horizons have never been limited to this sport. He truly is a man for all seasons, and now his hat is in the ring for the upcoming vote time to appoint Thomas Bach’s successor as president of the International Olympic Committee, the biggest job in all of sports.
He clearly has a lot on his plate, but now is not the time to hand over the baton to his role as head of World Athletics.
He gathered with his WA council teammates this week and they made decisions on a number of key WA productions.
I may be one of the few global journalists who is really interested in the racing division of our sport, can you tell me about the event that Norman Reed, Don Thompson and Abdon Pamich led the world in? attracted my special attention.
Most importantly, the distances to be run at the WA championships starting in 2026 have been decided.Following the 50km event on the Olympic program from Los Angeles 1932 to Tokyo/Sapporo 2021, 20 of them were upset when their event at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene. reduced to 35 thousand, then excluded from Paris 2024. The Olympics were completely replaced by the tricks of the marathon Walk Relay.
As interesting as it was, and with considerable impact, that walking relay really got WA thinking and thinking.
Unbeknownst to most followers of the racewalking game, significant decisions were being made in that direction.
And they were released a few days ago by Coe and the Board.
Officially mentioned are:
“The World Athletics Council has also approved the introduction of new official senior road distances for race walking to help put athletes’ remarkable achievements into context, make the events more relatable for fans and encourage mass participation. Consequently, the standard distances for senior race walking will change (a) 20 km race walk to half marathon race walk (21.0975 km); b) from a 35 km race walk to a marathon race (42,195 km); (c) the men’s and women’s under-20 10,000m race walk will be replaced by a 5,000m race walk.
So now, all you racing fans, where do we stand?
Here is one guy’s opinion.
Going to 42,195K is a brilliant idea.It’s a perfect compromise between those who wanted to keep 50K in the program forever and those who were satisfied with 35K.
Going to 21.0975 is also great.It’s just over 20k, a standard event at every major world meet since 1956.
But at the junior level, instead of 10,000, 5,000 m. Not so great idea Racewalk is basically a distance sport. 5000m is a relative sprint. Bring back the 10.
WA’s big hope is that these new marathon walks will interest more citizens of the world, realizing what a sensational athlete these world-class walkers must be. And that the most universal of all forms of exercise is, of course, simple walking.
For example: When France’s Johann Diniz raced to the 50K world record of 3:32:33 on Aug. 15, 2014 in Zurich, that meant he was cutting his 31.1 miles in 6:49 and covering 26 miles, 385. yard marathon distance in about 2:58.30.
And put that watch on the results list for, say, a typical big city marathon
NYC 2024 – and he would have finished about 2,200th in the 55,000-plus race.
How’s that for reminding the general population how?
a typical world class racer must be great.
Don’t you like tricks? Remember that the first 42.195 mile marathon, Windsor Castle to Shepherd’s Bush in London, was a trick. By the time the 1912 and 1920 Olympic marathons were in the books, the trick was 42.195.
However, one vital element was missing from Seb Coe’s board statement.
It did not announce that there would be 42,195 runs for men and women at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics…or 21,096. :
A number of these answers may be determined by the IOC presidential election in March 2025.
If Coe takes over, look for other innovations at the Olympic level.
The total Olympic participation limits, which are now around 11000 for all sports, well, just raise them.
Limiting the games to one city or one nation? In fact, it’s already being done. Outside of Southern California, the 2028 Olympics will be in Long Island, and soccer will be all over America.
New sports are clamoring to get in the door. Well, leave some more.
But don’t let the old ones dry out either.
The Racewalk has been part of the Games since 1904. Race distances have ranged from 880 yards (in the old, 10-event event) to 1,500, 3,500 and 10,000 meters on the track and 20K and 50K.
The change was semiannual.
Now it’s time for the marathon walk (and half marathon).
