Two months ago we launched a survey among our readers with the aim of knowing their idea on the best walkers of the year 2019 proposed by Marcia dal Mondo.
We now wish to recall that in men we proposed the following eight athletes
- Erica De Sena (BRA)
- Li Maocuo (CHN)
- Liang Rui (CHN)
- Liu Hong (CHN)
- Qieyang Shenjie (CHN)
- Sandra Lorena Arenas (COL)
- Julia Takacs (ESP)
- Eleonora Anna Giorgi (ITA)
Although the public survey launched on Social Networks has been viewed by over 110 people, the same has been answered only by less than 30 readers who have expressed themselves as follows:
- Liu Hong (JPN): votes 17
- Giorgi Eleonora Anna (ITA): votes 7
- De Sena Erica (BRA): votes 7
- Qieyang Shenjie (CHN): votes 4
- Liang Rui (CHN): votes 3
- Takacs Julia (ESP): votes 3
- Arenas Sandra Lorena (COL): votes 1
- Li Maocuo (CHN): without votes
Marcia dal Mondo then contacted about thirty walking experts from the following IAAF geographical areas, receiving a positive response to the survey by:
- Europe: 11 experts
- Asia: 3 experts
- Oceania: 1 experts
- NACAC: 1 expert
and which represent the following categories:
- Coaches: 9 experts
- Athletes and former athletes: 2 experts
- Judges: 2 experts
- Journalists and media: 3 experts
We just want to remind our readers that one of the last experts who wanted to participate in the survey, and we remember it with a certain emotion, was Elio Locatelli, a figure recognized all over the world who died this week.
The results of the expert survey were as follows:
Per Area (number of votes coming from):
| | Athlete | Europe | Asia | Oceania | NACAC | Experts |
| | | | | | | |
| | Liu Hong (CHN) | 32 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 48 |
| | | | | | | |
| | Qieyang Shenije (CHN) | 7 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 21 |
| | | | | | | |
| | Liang Rui (CHN) | 9 | 2 | - | 1 | 12 |
| | | | | | | |
| | Giorgi Eleonora Anna (ITA) | 5 | - | - | - | 5 |
| | | | | | | |
| | De Sena Erica (BRA) | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| | | | | | | |
| | Li Maocuo (CHN) | - | 1 | - | - | 1 |
Per expert category (number of votes coming from):
| Athlete | Coach | Athletes & ex athletes | Press & Media | Judges | Experts |
| | | | | | |
| Liu Hong (CHN) | 28 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 48 |
| | | | | | |
| Qieyang Shenije (CHN) | 12 | - | 5 | 4 | 21 |
| | | | | | |
| Liang Rui (CHN) | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 12 |
| | | | | | |
| Giorgi Eleonora Anna (ITA) | 3 | 1 | - | 1 | 5 |
| | | | | | |
| De Sena Erica (BRA) | 1 | - | - | - | 1 |
| | | | | | |
| Li Maocuo (CHN) | 1 | - | - | - | 1 |
The main motivation that the experts provided was that Liu Hong became only the second walker in history, man or woman, to simultaneusly hold the world records of 50 and 20km, as it was for Yohann Diniz for just one week in the 2015.
The combined result of the Marcia dal Mondo athlete's survey is therefore the following:
| Athlete | Public | Experts | Total |
| | | | |
| Liu Hong (CHN) | 17 | 48 | 65 |
| | | | |
| Qieyang Shenjie (CHN) | 4 | 21 | 25 |
| | | | |
| Liang Rui (CHN) | 3 | 12 | 15 |
| | | | |
| Giorgi Eleonora Anna (ITA) | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| | | | |
| De Sena Erica (BRA) | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| | | | |
| Takacs Julia (ESP) | 3 | - | 3 |
| | | | |
| Arenas Sandra Lorena (COL) | 1 | - | 1 |
| | | | |
| Li Maocuo (CHN) | - | 1 | 1 |
