The World Athletics Federation's official website recently announced that the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will have a new mixed race walking relay event. The race distance is 42.195 km in length for the marathon. For the Chinese team, which are strong in the men's and women's 20km events, this is good news to increase the chances of winning a medal.
According to the World Athletics Federation, the new event is called the "Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay", and each country sends one athlete from each male and one female athlete, each with two sticks, to complete the relay.
Although the race distance is the same as the marathon, the mixed relay requires two runners to alternate relays and therefore does not take place on the marathon route. The World Athletics Federation said the race will be held on a one-kilometre circumference track for men and women in the 20-kilometre race walk.
According to reports, in order to help athletes achieve both, the Paris Olympics plan to separate individual events and relay events by 6 days to allow time for athletes to recover.
The increase in race walking at the Paris Olympics is good news for the Chinese race walking corps, which has a balanced strength of male and female athletes. Tian Xiaojun, vice chairman of the Chinese Athletics Association, said in an interview that in recent years, China has made a lot of preparations for the 35-kilometer project and has also reserved a certain thickness of talent.
In the recent World Championship trials Huangshan and Taicang, Jiangsu, Chinese players have shining as veterans and rookies in the men's and women's trials. On the women's side, Yang Jiayu showed stable strength and stood on the podium continuously. Liu Hong, who is about to turn 36, won the championship in Taicang after finishing third in Huangshan. In addition, she ran her first 35km race in the Czech Republic, setting a new Asian record.
On the men's side, Chinese players also performed well. In the 35km event, Cui Lihong and Bian Tongda just finished bronze and eighth in the Czech race.
The men's 20km race walk at the World Championships achieved a time of 1 hour, 20 minutes and 10 seconds. In the Huangshan Station Trials, Shaanxi's Wang Chaochao and Yunnan's Niu Wenchao have successfully reached the standard and won tickets to the World Championships. Heilongjiang's Qian Haifeng, who failed to make the selection by 10 seconds in Huangshan, walked out of the Asian Championships in Japan two weeks ago with a time of 1 hour, 19 minutes and 05 seconds. At this Taicang station, the National Games champion Zhang Jun won the championship again.
With only three places to participate, the Chinese team fell into sweet troubles when it came to selecting people. It is reported that they will combine the results of the Asian Championships in Japan, the Taicang race and the three races in Rio Mayor, Portugal on May 5 to finally determine the third candidate for the men's 6km.
On the other hand, the new relay event requires athletes to be faster and skilled in handing over the baton on the fast march. Despite the contingencies of the race, the Chinese athletes stood on the same starting line as all the competitors in terms of adaptation training. Compared with the world's race walking strength, China's race walking is expected to stand on the podium of the event at the Paris Olympics.
Text/Reporter Chu Peng