And unfortunately Wajima also capitulated.
It was the last 50km of this first part of the season that should have taken place.
It was the last race of the Japanese triptych of Kobe, Nomi and Wajima in which the walkers of Japan would be selected (together with Takahata) for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
This year would have been the 104th edition, which for more than a thirty years has been taking place in the charming town of the prefecture of Ishihawa.
This crazy and insane spring of 2020 has also taken away the remaining hopes of seeing the Japanese 50km battleship at work among the cherry trees of Wajima, canceling the efforts of the local municipality that had tried in every way to resist, canceling the side races, but keeping only the main one standing.
Yesterday evening the press release that the 2020 race was canceled to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
We take this opportunity to also inform our readers of the following:
- Apr 18 (Sat), 2020: International Race Walk Meeting, Zaniemysl, Poland (20km): will probably be postponed to mid-June;
- Apr 19 (Sun), 2020: Hungarian 20km Race Walk Championships, Békéscsaba, Hungary (20km) has been permanently canceled.
Over the years, the Wajima race had become increasingly important in the 50km world scene.
In order to give our readers the sense of this importance we have summarized in this table the last 15 Wajima winners (from 2005 to 2019) comparing them with the world lists of the season.
| Year | Wajima winner | Mark | Performance of the year | Year leader | Mark |
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| 2005 | YAMAZAKI Yuki (JAP) | 3:50:39 | 31 | YU Choahong (CHN) | 3:36:06 |
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| 2006 | YAMAZAKI Yuki (JAP) | 3:43:38 | 9 | DEAKES Nathan (AUS) | 3:35:47 |
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| 2007 | YAMAZAKI Yuki (JAP) | 3:47:40 | 15 | SCHWAZER Alex (ITA) | 3:36:04 |
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| 2008 | YAMAZAKI Yuki (JAP) | 3:41:55 | 8 | NIZHEGORODOV Denis (RUS) | 3:34:14 |
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| 2009 | YAMAZAKI Yuki (JAP) | 3:40:12 | 3 | DINIZ Yohann (FRA) | 3:38:45 |
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| 2010 | YAMAZAKI Yuki (JAP) | 3:46:56 | 5 | DINIZ Yohann (FRA) | 3:40:37 |
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| 2011 | MORIOKA Koichiro (JAP) | 3:44:45 | 9 | SI Tianfeng (CHN) | 3:38:48 |
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| 2012 | YAMAZAKI Yuki (JAP) | 3:41:47 | 7 | TALLENT Jared (AUS) | 3:36:53 |
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| 2013 | TANII Takayuki (JAP) | 3:44:25 | 11 | HEFFERNAN Robert (IRL) | 3:37:56 |
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| 2014 | TANII Takayuki (JAP) | 3:41:32 | 7 | DINIZ Yohann (FRA) | 3:32:33 |
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| 2015 | ARAI Hirooki (JPN) | 3:40:20 | 2 | TOTH Matej (SVK) | 3:34:38 |
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| 2016 | TANII Takayuki (JAP) | 3:44:12 | 17 | DINIZ Yohann (FRA) | 3:37:48 |
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| 2017 | ARAI Hirooki (JPN) | 3:47:18 | 21 | DINIZ Yohann (FRA) | 3:33:12 |
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| 2018 | NODA Tomohiro (JPN) | 3:45:56 | 9 | DINIZ Yohann (FRA) | 3:39:47 |
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| 2019 | SUZUKI Yusuke (JPN) | 3:39:07 | 5 | KAWANO Masatora (JPN) | 3:36:45 |