Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 103, February 2018 | Page 13

WALK THIS
WAY
By Anel Oosthuizen
and on the road eight judges,
including your chief judge. Their
job is to make sure you are
race walking at all times. Still,
many an athlete has been left
frustrated by being disqualified
close to the finish line!
PIT STOP PENALTIES
A
s with all sports, there are rules in race walking. Disobey them
and you will be penalised. Lucky for us walkers, there are only
two important ones to remember! According to the IAAF Rule
230: Race Walking is a progression of steps so taken that the walker
makes contact with the ground, so that no visible (to the human eye) loss
of contact occurs. The advancing leg shall be straightened (i.e. not bent
at the knee) from the moment of first contact with the ground until the
vertical upright position.
We are only allowed to be judged by the naked eye, which means
opinions may differ from time to time, but thankfully our fate does not
depend on only one judge. On a 400m track you will have six judges,
In the past, three red cards/
warnings meant that you would
be disqualified, and asked to
leave the track and remove your
race number. This has changed
with the introduction of the ‘pit lane’ rule, which was first applied to the youth athletes in
competition, then moved up to the junior athletes as well, and from 2018 it is officially in
use for all race walkers.
So how does it work? Athletes get penalised a compulsory ‘pit stop’ time penalty when
they have three warnings. In a 5km or 5000m race, you will be given a 30-second ‘pit
stop’, or one minute in a 10km/10000m, two minutes in a 20km/20000m, or five minutes in
the 50km. You are only allowed to start your race again after the penalty time has passed,
and if you do receive another warning, you will unfortunately be disqualified from the race.
From an athlete’s perspective, it is going to be quite interesting to see the pit lane rule
being used for the first time in the senior category, but I would preferably not want to
experience it firsthand!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Race Walker Anel Oosthuizen is a multiple SA Champion and
Record Holder, who represented SA at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She recently completed
a degree in B.Ed Foundation Phase at the University of Johannesburg.
13