Not only did the World Race Walking Tour Bronze level race take place in Guadix, Spain last weekend, but the day before the race, a webinar was held literally from the scene for athletic walking enthusiasts, officials, coaches and the athletes themselves.

The webinar was organized by World Athletics and hosted by none other than WA's Pierce O'Callaghan in collaboration with Luis Saladie who will be the technical delegate for Paris. As a TD, he mainly answered the questions of the participants in the chat.

The webinar consisted of three parts:

Part 1: Olympic relay - rules and information (we do not present the entire content of the webinar, only new information):

as known the relay will be the length of a marathon race - 42 m. The race at the Olympic Games will take place under the iconic Eiffel Tower on Martové polých, which will provide a beautiful backdrop for all the walking competitions.

The relay was chosen for one reason only. The Olympic Committee insisted on equal disciplines for men and women. The unattractiveness of the 50 km race and the low numbers of participants worldwide led to the change to 35 km. Even so, the OH committee made a request for a team competition. If that wasn't created, there would be only one walking discipline at the Olympics. The thing didn't cost 35 versus the relay. It was a relay race or nothing. The choice was more or less clear, if WA wanted to keep 2 pedestrian disciplines. And although the initial reactions of the pedestrians were quite pessimistic, the news from the world, where the athletes tried the novelty, is quite positive, the competitors like the new format and from the spectator's point of view it will be an interesting spectacle.

The race will be run by a team consisting of a man and a woman and they will divide between themselves 4 sections in the order M - F - M - F.

Each competitor must run at least 20 km. Although, due to the prescribed length of pedestrian circuits of length 1 or 2 km offers that the length of the sections is 11 195 - 11 - 10 -10, this will not be the case. The exact length of the sections depends on where the organizers can build facilities for rest / tune-up for the athletes waiting for the next section. In this part, which is very demanding on prosor, everything that is allowed in multi-competition competitions will be allowed. In both Paris and the qualifying Antalya, there will be tubs of ice water, athletes can refresh themselves, get a massage and if someone can do it during the three quarters of an hour, they can even take a nap.

Due to the given parameter, the first sections in Paris and Antalya will be different. The lengths of the sections will be as follows:

Paris 11.395 - 10 - 10 - 10,8

Antalya 12.195 - 10 - 10 - 10

As already known, 22 teams will advance from Antalya, while 5 countries can get 2 participation places. Subsequently, 3 teams will be added to the starting list according to the current world ranking:

https://worldathletics.org/stats-zone/road-to/7153115?eventId=10230211

For the relay outside the webinar:

The qualification period ends on 30.6. 2024. If any country, including ours, would like to repair Antalya and try to get a participation place in the Olympics through the world ranking, it is necessary to think and plan ahead at this moment. Tracks of the type used in last year's race in Nové Pács will not pass the world rankings. The race must be entered in the calendar no later than 60 days before it takes place and there must be at least 3 referees of international level. Time will tell whether the Czech relay team has a chance to participate. At this moment we can be pleased that participant of the Olympic Games is Eliška Martínková. She is currently 33 (48 female competitors) and de facto it is enough for her to win the championship in Poděbrady. Then it would be logical to try a relay with someone from the trio Hlaváč - Morávek - Zajíček (alphabetically). The potential Czech relay would most likely be on the edge of the promotion places in Antalya. Logically, it is suggested to try for the Olympics despite the ranking and prepare a race to be sure. You can always cancel it. The next months will show what the strategy of the Czech national team will be. For men, this is probably the only chance to watch the Olympics. The extremely difficult OH limit of 1:20:10 has already been met by 35 walkers at the moment, leaving only 13 places to participate via the ladder. Our men would have to improve significantly and run at least 3 really fast races in the spring months (in the case of Morávek and Zajíček, 2 would be enough). Realistically, the participation of our men is more likely at the EC in Rome, but even that would be a great success, given the low number of starting places (35). For women, the situation is easier, the limit of 1:29:20 has been met by only 20 women, so there are still more places left for female fighters on the ladder. There will be plenty to see in Antalya.

2nd part: the webinar was dedicated to the presentation of the WC walking teams in Antalya on 21.4. 2024:

The track of the WC race will be located at the Expo in Antalya, and fans can use the tram connection from the center and the airport. The tram stop is right in front of the Expo entrance. The day before the championship itself, with truly traditional test races. A 3 km race will be prepared for the youth, while veteran athletes will be able to complete a 5 km race. There is no link for registering for the race yet, we will inform you when it is available.

Part 3: Judging of walking competitions:

Last year WA held a series of online training sessions for new gait judges. For the first time, training videos were used where the Budapest races were broken down. The referees thus received feedback on their work for the first time in history. And it was not a positive assessment. Unfortunately, the referees have so far allowed a number of mistakes to pass, which has led to very fast times in recent years, but, from a layman's point of view, it was not good for walking.

Training of new referees, more frequent work with the existing ones, all this should lead to significantly more accurate decisions. Given that the race in Antalya will also be recorded and subsequently analyzed by Jeff Salvag from the USA, it is most likely clear how the decisions will be made in Antalya. If the referee has doubts and turned a blind eye earlier, today he is more likely to make a motion for exclusion. It does not mean that the competitors will go out wrongly, but where previously, according to the video, a clear violation of the rules passed, this will most likely not happen. And it will harden over time, all championship races will be recorded and evaluated.

According to expert measurements, the flight phase visible to the human eye occurs somewhere between 40 - 45 milliseconds.

The loss of contact will officially be considered for the evaluation of the work of the referees from what is over 60 ms.

What is interesting then is the promotion of knee braces. Everything from 174º should pass for the judges. However, anything below this level is a valid disqualification.

The message from the webinar is thus clear for competitors. Technique, technique, technique. That is the direction WA wants to go.

Whether a similar style of decision-making will be reflected in our races is a question. Unfortunately, referee training is not very frequent. We now have 2 judges on the international panel - Nedvídek, Lapka. Both mentioned have already received invitations to international competitions. Most recently, Martin Nedvídek will also referee at the European Championship U18 in Banská Bystrica, and M. Lapka is TD for Dudinc (golden race). Hopefully, our judges will prepare articles or webinars about their experiences from international competitions and pass on their experiences.

What should the two gentlemen on the panel help to enforce (as well as the union), je setting up a penalty zone. In the past, M. Lapka presented this, which is now more of an old thing than a new thing, to the pedestrian public in his articles, stating that WA promotes the application of PZ at all races. It doesn't happen after sin. At last year's MČR, the reason for not establishing a PZ was the alleged financial burden of this rule. However, we rightly believe that it is more about the inexperience of the Czech organizers and the reluctance to implement something new. What is really needed at PZ? 2 young assistants or referees of the 3rd class. Two stopwatches. After all, the number of visitors to the PZ is not so high that more is needed. And 6 cones or other marks used for children's training, with which PZ is distinguished. The first opportunity to use PZ will be this Sunday. And in the hall, with a 30-s penalty, it would be a more than interesting element.