Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 115, February 2019 | Page 51

Some years later in 1864, Emma Sharp became the first woman to complete
the 1000 miles challenge, but her feat was surpassed by Ada Anderson, who
walked 1500miles (2400km) in 1000 hours and was labelled by the press as
“The Champion Lady Walker of the World.” Around that time a popular goal for
pedestrians was to walk 100 miles in less than 24 hours, thus earning the nickname
‘centurions,’ and enormous cash prizes for these races became common, as did
large crowds of spectators.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
WALK
THIS
WAY
By Anel Oosthuizen
The first English Amateur walking championship was held in 1866, and by 1880
the Amateur Athletics Association in England had written official rules for the sport,
around the same time that sports such as football and cricket were also codified.
That led to race walking being included in the 1904 Olympics, with an 880-yard
(800m) walk being part of the ‘all-rounder event, the precursor of today’s decathlon
event. The first stand-alone race walking events held at the Olympics was in 1908,
which featured 3500m and 10-mile (16km) distances. A 10km event replaced those
distances at the 1912 Olympics and continued until 1924, when South Africa’s
Cecil McMaster claimed the bronze medal.
WAY BACK WALKING
Recently, while doing some general reading up about race
walking, I realised that throughout my entire race walking
career, I had never properly researched where the sport
started. I have never been a fan of the subject called history,
but I found the history of race walking to be fascinating – and
I also realised that I am very far behind regarding mileage in
my career, if I look at the early pioneers of the sport!
T
oday we know it as race walking, although some people still call it different
incorrect names, such as ‘speed walking’ or ‘power walking,’ but if you look
back in history, long distance walking actually started in the late 1700s as
Pedestrianism. Of course, people had been walking long distances for centuries,
but now it became a popular spectator sport at fairs in the British Isles, with
wagers and betting on the outcome of footraces being equally popular. One of
the earliest celebrities of this new sport was the Englishman Foster Powell, who
in 1773 walked 400 miles (640km) from London to York and back, and in 1788 he
walked 100 miles (160km) in 21 hours and 35 minutes.
What was very interesting to me was that race walking was not included in the Olympics
in 1928, and then in 1932 they added a 50km event, which has been part of every
Olympics since then except for 1976. Meanwhile, the 10km returned in 1947, until
replaced by the 20km in 1956, which has been a standard Games event since then. The
biggest shock to me was that the women’s race walking event was only introduced in
1992 at the Barcelona Olympics, making it a mere 27 years ago in comparison to the 104
years that race walking has been part of the Olympics! The women raced 10km in 1992
and 1996, but since 2000 have also raced a standard 20km.
Now, early in 2019, the IAAF will be discussing the distances again, with the
potential plan to replace the 20km/50km events with 10km and 30km distances.
Some believe this will make the event more marketable, but I believe that changing
these distances will not help, whereas the presentation of it and how it is portrayed
needs to change. The way we hold these events will make the biggest difference.
My argument is that anyone who does not like being a spectator of the 50km event
is probably not going to like being a spectator of the 30km event either.
Then there was Captain Robert Barclay Allardice, The Scot who was called ‘The
Celebrated Pedestrian’ by the media, and this is where my distance inadequacy
thoughts come in, because his claim to fame was that in 1809 he walked one
mile (1.6km) every hour for 1000 hours! He achieved this in a little bit more than
a month, and his effort caught the public’s attention to such an extent that over
the course of the event, some 10,000 people came to watch him walk! In 1815
George Wilson set out to walk 1000miles in 480 hours, but he was arrested after
completing three quarters of the distance... for disturbing the peace!
Foster
Powell
Captain
Robert
Barclay
Allardice
RESPECT!
Looking back at the history of race walking and the achievements of the early
pedestrians right up to today’s top race walkers, I have gained still higher respect
for the sport, and the ambassadors of the event. The hard work that athletes put in
to become the very best of the best and race at the top level is something one has
to experience to truly understand, because it takes really hard work!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Race Walker Anel Oosthuizen is a multiple SA
Champion and Record Holder, and represented SA in the women’s 20km at the
2016 Rio Olympics.
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