The 20km men's march presents a very open race and there is a lot of similarity between the best performances of the season between the field of 56 registered athletes ..
20km men
For the team victory, our favorite is Spain: Alvaro Martin, however, has yet to prove his form after his triumph at last year's European Championships, but above all after knee surgery in January. Diego Garcia and former world and European champion Miguel Angel Lopez complete the team of Spain, which we see very difficult to beat for the team victory.
Another potential competitor for individual gold could be Massimo Stano (ITA). In January he walked 35km in 2:35:03 while in April on the 10,000m track he achieved an excellent 38:28.05 lowering his previous best performance by almost two minutes.
Vasiliy Mizinov (ANA) recorded a 1:18:32 in February, and a more recent clocking of 1:20:14 with his victory in Podebrady in April. Mizinov leads the European 2019 list with Perseus Karlstrom (SWE) behind him timed 1:20:05 in Adelaide (AUS) in February and unbeaten in six races this year.
Another successful candidate could be Christoper Linke (GER).
2019 European seasonal list including athletes from Russia (first 30 athletes).
50km men
You can never be sure what you’re going to get with Yohann Diniz (FRA) which makes the 50km race walk at the European Race Walking Cup in Alytus, Lithuania on Sunday.
The world record-holder and reigning world champion either soars or sinks with very little middle ground in between. But one thing’s for sure: the Frenchman will set an electric pace and force rivals to squint at his disappearing back as early as the 10km checkpoint.
It’s around here that Diniz, 41, will either walk to solo glory or come to grief as he did in the last three Olympic Games.
He could probably afford to walk 10 minutes slower than the 3:32:33 world record set at the Zurich 2014 European Athletics Championships and still win - but that’s not his style.
Nominally looking at silver and bronze should be a strong Ukrainian quartet - even in the absence of reigning European champion Maryan Zakalnytskyy (UKR) - spearheaded by defending champion Ivan Banzeruk (UKR) who has personal best of 3:44:49 for the 50km race walk.
Entry list: click here