Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 125, December 2019 | Page 38

Committee (IOC) has lowered the qualifying times used for the 2016 Rio Games to
the faster times listed below, which have made the chances/hopes of qualifying for
the Olympics a lot slimmer for many walkers:
• Men’s 20km: 1:24:00 for Rio, now 1:21:00 for Tokyo
• Women’s 20km: 1:36:00 for Rio, now 1:31:00 for Tokyo
• Men’s 50km: 4:06:00 for Rio, now 3:50:00 for Tokyo
In terms of avoiding disqualification, again, easier said than done, given the strict
rules governing technique and form in the sport of race walking, but that’s part of
the challenge!
READY. SET. TOKYO!
The year has gone by in a blink of an eye and while many
will be reminiscing about the past year, most athletes
are already setting goals for 2020, planning those race
calendars, and watching our carb intake during the holiday
season. Well, sort of...
F
our years have passed and the next Summer Olympics are on our proverbial
doorstep, taking place in Tokyo, Japan in July-August 2020, and thus it’s time
for many elite athletes to embark on training camps and get into tip top shape
for 2020. The 2019 season has been a year of preparation for most prospective 2020
Olympic hopefuls, and the focus in the coming months will be on qualifying for Tokyo.
As South Africa had four race walkers at the Olympics in 2016, there are now even
more hopefuls that want to try qualify for the 2020 Games, so we are all in peak
training, and as the Games get closer, the intensity will only pick up still more. But
how do South African race walkers qualify for the Olympics? The extra challenge
for our race walkers is that we cannot do so in South Africa, because we do not
have the right amount of qualified judges here to make it eligible for us to qualify
locally. Therefore, our walkers will need to follow this ‘recipe’ in order to get to the
Olympic Games in 2020.
Step 1: Go overseas
The usual options are to find races in Europe, Asia or Australia.
Step 2: Walk the qualifying time while avoiding getting disqualified
This is really not as easy as it sounds, because the International Olympic
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ISSUE 125 DECEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
There are no guarantees of selection, but our race walkers will hope that SASCOC
will send a strong walking team to Tokyo.
Step 4: Pack your bags
If selected for Tokyo, our walkers will embark on the journey of a lifetime to
experience the world’s biggest athletics event. In my case, it would be an absolute
privilege to get to experience this a second time, after competing in Rio in 2016.
Hot in the City!
Following the super-heated conditions at the recent World Champs in Doha this
year, the expected conditions in Tokyo came under the focus of World Athletics (the
former IAAF) and IOC, leading to a discussion about the suitability of Tokyo as the
venue for the race walking and marathon run events. As a result, it was announced
late this year that while most events in the Games will be held in Tokyo, at the
newly built (and very impressive) Olympic Stadium, the race walking and marathon
events will be held in Sapporo Odori Park in Hokkaido, 800km north of Tokyo.
Sapporo is a popular spot for tourists, given its cooler conditions, and hosts a
number of different events throughout the year, including the Hokkaido Marathon.
According to the official Olympic website, “The park was chosen because its layout
allows both the marathon and race walk events to be held at the same venue,
while the topography of the surrounding area allows for the creation of exciting
competition courses.”
Meanwhile, the IOC, World Athletics and Tokyo 2020 have agreed on 1km and
2km loops for the race walk events. The competition schedules have also been
revamped to facilitate the support of officials and coaches for the athletes in the
remote venue away from the rest of the Games. Thus the marathon and race walk
events are now scheduled to be held on four consecutive days, from 6 to 9 August,
as follows:
• 6 August (4:30pm) – Men’s 20km race walk
• 7 August (5:30am) – Men’s 50km race walk
• 7 August (4:30pm) – Women’s 20km race walk
• 8 August (7am) – Women’s Marathon run
• 9 August (7am) – Men’s Marathon run
The Chair of the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission, Kirsty Coventry, said, “The athletes’
health and wellbeing are always at the heart of our concerns, and the decision to
move the marathon and race walk events to Sapporo shows how seriously we take
such concerns. We also want the Olympic Games to be the platform where athletes
can give ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ performances, and this new venue ensures that they
will have the conditions to give their best.”
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.
Cloete
WALK
THIS
WAY
By Anel Oosthuizen
Step 3: Be chosen to represent SA at the 2020 Olympics