Walking and racing don’t really seem like they go hand-in-hand but walkracing is actually an Olympic event and there is a World race every 2 years for the World Race Walking Cup. Since 1961, the International Association of Athletics Federations have organized 23 World Cups and this year the IAAF World Race Walking Cup was held in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Walking the World
2010 IAAF World Race Walking Cup
The events at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup are for men, women and team entries. The rules of race walking are quite simple; to avoid the act of running, a walker must always have one foot touching the ground. So before the toe of the back foot leaves the ground, the heel of the front foot must be touching the ground. The men do a 20km and 50 km race, while the women only do a 20km race.
Walking Winners
2010 IAAF World Race Walking Cup
This year Chinese Hao Wang won the Gold medal and teammate Yafei Zhu won the silver in the men’s 20 km race. It was only the second time China has won the Gold and Silver.
2010 IAAF World Race Walking Cup
After winning three bronze medals prior to this year’s race, 34 year old Maria Vasco of Spain finally won the gold medal for the women’s 20km.
2010 IAAF World Race Walking Cup
In the main event, Matej Toth won Slovakia’s first-ever-medal for racewalking in the men’s 50km. Matej surprised all the favorites including home favorite Horacio Nava from Mexico, when Matej came out of the blue in the last kilometer of the race to take the lead and win.
Wondering about Walking
If you want to learn how to racewalk, there is a great website called racewalk.com that has a lot of information. It shows a lot of the techniques, training tips and covers all of the best professionals. Racewalking is a great sport to do on your own. It doesn’t cost any money, you can do it almost anywhere, and it’s so easy, even a baby can do it.
