And next Sunday will be the turn of another exciting race which is now a "must" for world race walking.
Organized by the Hyogo Athletics Association, the 103rd edition of the 20km Race Walk Japan Championships will take place in Kobe.
This Championship is also combined with the U20 Championship over the 10km distance which has reached its 31st edition.
Kobe, as we said, is now a must for the world race walk: one of those "monument event" such as La Coruna, Rio Maior, Taihu, and is part of that triptych of Japan which also includes Takahata and Wajima.
But Kobe will also present its novelty this year: the route has been reduced from the usual 2km to what has now become the proudest course for a 20km race: the 1km course.
We will be able to see on the wide avenues of Rokko Island the impact that it can have on the performances of athletes, who are usually very interesting in Kobe.
The list of members has already been made official.
- 20km men: 92 athletes with all the best of past season from Yamanishi to Takahashi, from Ikeda to Suzuki, from Fujisawa to Noda, from Arai to Koga and finally from Kobayashi to Maruo. An incredible parterre, the worst result of which is just over 1:20:00.
In men's starting list, among the invited athletes of the open race stands out the name of Perseus Karlstrom, winner in Adelaide last Saturday.
The strong Swedish athlete who has a personal best of 1:18:07 obtained in La Coruna on 8.6.2019 (and which represents Sweden's National Record) makes no secret of wanting to improve.
The minimum objective is a performance around 1:17:00, but the real one, and not so much hidden, is the attempt to break the world record of 1:16:36 Yusuke Sukuzi obtained in Nomi (JPN) on 15.3.2015.
It will be very interesting to see the battle between Karlstrom, Suzuki, Yamanishi and Takahashi which on the route of Rokko Island in Kobe is the one that has achieved the most victories.
- 20km women: 50 entered, also here with at least six athletes of high interest (Okada in 1:27:41, Fujii in 1:28:58, Kawazoe in 1:31:10, Asada in 1:30:44, Fuchise in 1:28:03 and Michiguchi in 1:31:51)
- 10km U20 men: with the incredible number of 111 registered athletes
- 5km U20 women with 69 registered athletes