As every year in this period in the Statistics section the updated graphs of the speed trends in walking events have been published.
As in previous years we have followed the model that:
• limits the historical view to the past 20 years
• and we also continued the analysis of the speed trend in the women's 50km.
The years taken into consideration were therefore:
• 20 Km. Women - top (from 2001 to 2020)
• 20 Km. Women - average of the top 20 (from 2001 to 2020)
• 50 Km. Women - top (from 2002 to 2020)
• 50 Km. Women - average of the first 20 (from 2002 to 2020)
Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 this year the statistical data are much less interesting than in the past.
The lack of important races and the frantic search for some traditional medium-high level competition was the predominant reason for this season.
And also the results, in particular the average speeds of the top 20 "performers" were affected.
This is the main reason that made us decide this year not to publish, as we did in 2019, all that series of subsequent analyzes of "Area vs World" and "Italy vs World" as we realized that they would be be useless and even misleading.
We hope to be able to resume them in the course of 2021, because we know that they had aroused a lot of interest.
A few comments
Also in 2020 the suspension of the RusAthletics (Russian Federation) from international competitions continued.
The athletes of that country, however, competed as much as possible at national level. The related results were taken into account.
In 20km the athletes of the RusAthletics (Federation of Russia) that influence our graphs this year are five (in 2019 they were only two).
Of these 5 performances, 4 were obtained at the Russian Winter Champioships in Sochi on 17.2.2020, in a period in which the pandemic in Europe was iat the beginning, but in Russia it was still unknown.
The athletes of interest are:
- Elvira Khasanova (RUS), a young 21-year-old, who is the first in the 2020 world rankings with the mark of 1:26:43 obtained with the victory in Sochi
- Reykhan Kagramanova (RUS), second in the 2020 world ranking with the mark of 1:26:50 obtained with the second place in Sochi
- Marina Novikova (RUS), third in the 2020 world ranking with the mark of 1:27:25 obtained with the third place in Sochi
- Yuliya Turova (RUS), seventh in the 2020 world ranking with the mark of 1:28:36 obtained with the fourth place in Sochi
- Darya Golubechkova (RUS), also born in 2000, who on 5.9.2020 in Voronovo in the Moscow suburbs stopped the clock in 1:28:43
In the first ten of the world season there are therefore:
- the five aforementioned female athletes from Russia
- three female athletes from China: Liu Hong (1:27:48, Taian, 20.9.2020), Yang Jiaju (1:28:06, Taian, 20.9.2020), and Qieyang Shenjie (1:28:27, Taian, 20.9. 2020)
- an athlete from Italy, Antonella Palmisano (1:28:40, Podebrady, 10.10.2020)
- an athlete from Ukraine, Olena Sobchuck (1:29:12, Antalya, 16.2.2020)
The Nations represented in the top 20 athletes of the 20km are the following:
| Nation | 2019 athletes | 2020 athletes | Difference |
| | | | |
| China | 11 | 3 | -8 |
| Russia | 2 | 5 | +4 |
| Spain | 1 | - | -1 |
| Italy | 1 | 1 | - |
| Brasil | 1 | 1 | - |
| Colombia | 1 | - | -1 |
| Ukraine | - | 4 | +4 |
| India | - | 1 | +1 |
| Kazakistan | - | 1 | +1 |
| Turkey | - | 1 | +1 |
| Belarus | - | 1 | +1 |
| Japan | 2 | 1 | -1 |
| Ecuador | 1 | 1 | - |
In 50km the situation represented in 20km is magnified even more.
In the first six months of the year there were only three medium-high level competitions on the 50km: that of Santee in California (USA) on January 25, which saw the victory of Robyn Stevens (4:37.33), that of Torrevieja (ESP) of February 16, won by Maria Juarez (4:15:46) and that of Lima (PER) won by Viviane Lyra (BRA) in 4:41.07.
Obviously all three winners find themselves in the ranking of the top 20 athletes.
Maria Juarez (ESP) is third, with Ainoha Pinedo (ESP) second in the ranking occupying 14th place.
Robyn Stevens (USA) is 10th, with Stephanie Casey (USA), Erin Taylor-Talcott (USA) and Katie Burnett (USA) occupying 17th, 18th and 20th positions
In the second part of the season, after August, the most important races took place: that of Voronovo, in the suburbs of Moscow (RUS), on 5.9.2020, with the athletes of RusAthletics (Federation of Russia) who, as is known, do not compete internationally.
It was in Voronovo that there was an explosion of high-level results for two athletes:
- Yelena Lashmanova (RUS), earlier in 3:50:42 which if it could have been recognized as a record would have shattered Liu Hong's world record (3: 59.15)
- Margarita Nikiforova (RUS), second in 3:59:56.
The two athletes are placed in the first two places of the ranking.
From fourth to seventh place four other athletes finished behind the first two in Voronovo: Anastasia Kalashnikova (4:18:26), Kristina Lyubushkina (4:22:24), Aleksandra Bushkova (4:25:32) and Irina Musikhina (4:32:11)
Khrystyna Yudkina (UKR), winner Ivano-Frankivsk (UKR) on 18.19.2020, follows in 8th place in 4:32:30, and again Kristina Kudinova (RUS) with 4:34:45 obtained in Voronovo is 9th.
In the positions between 11th and 20th we find in addition to the aforementioned: two athletes from Poland and two from Ukraine.
China, which last year had been the leading nation, is not represented this year as there were no 50km competitions in that country due to Covid-19.
The nations represented in the top 20 athletes of the 50km are the following:
| Nation | 2019 athletes | 2020 athletes | Difference |
| | | | |
| China | 6 | - | -6 |
| Ecuador | 2 | - | -2 |
| Ukraine | 2 | 3 | +1 |
| Belarus | 1 | - | -1 |
| Russia | 2 | 8 | +6 |
| Spain | 2 | 2 | - |
| Australia | 1 | - | -1 |
| Poland | - | 2 | -2 |
| Portugal | 1 | - | -1 |
| Slovakia | 1 | - | -1 |
| Guatemala | 1 | - | +1 |
| Italy Brasil USA | 1 - - | - 1 4 | +1 +1 +4 |
The two performances of Yelena Lashmanova and Margarita Nikiforova from one point of view open new horizons on the potential of women in the history of the 50km.
In the last four years, since Ines Henriques set her first double world record, it seems that twenty years have passed in terms of increasing the average speed of the first female performace in the 50km. The 12.89 km/hr of the Portuguese athlete is now offset by the 13.01 km/hr of the Russian athlete, the first ever to march 50km above 13 km/hr.
Certainly the result will not be homologated as a world record, and we all know why, but the increase in performance is there and as a statistical and analytical data it must be taken into consideration.
To date there are four athletes who have walked below 4:00:00: Yelena Lashmanova (3:50:42) and Margarita Nikiforova (3:59:56) and Klavdiya Afanasyeva (3:57:08), all Russian and the first in the story Liu Hong (3:59:15).
But what could have happened if World Athletics hadn't decided to replace the 50km with a 35km one?
Behind these four athletes, in the 2019 season, there were three more at the window:
- Li Maocuo (CHN): 4:03:51
- Eleonora Anna Giorgi (ITA): 4:04:50
- Julia Takacs (ESP): 4:05:46
who did not compete in 2020, probably to prepare, at least the two Europeans, the Olympic 20km.
Just think of what Margarita Nikiforova managed to do in one season, which went from 4:05:48 (which placed her sixth in the world list of 2019) to 3:59:56 of 2020 where, as already mentioned, she is second.
The other consideration that must be made for clarity is that behind the three top athletes in Russia we do not see other athletes with high hopes and enormous potential. The results of Anastasia Kalashnikova (4:18:26), Kristina Lyubushkina (4:22:24), Aleksandra Bushkova (4:25:32) say not much in terms of future potential, and they say even less when placed in the world ranking of 2019.
With 4:18:26 it would have been in 22nd position, with 4:22:24 in 28th and with 4:25:32 in 32nd.
As if to say that there isn't much behind Lashmanova, Afanasyeva and Nikiforova. On the other hand, just go and look at the world ranking of 2019 to see how much China women in the 50km was better placed in terms of potential and number of athletes with the highest average.
To download the graph: click here