As every year in this period in the Statistics section the updated graphs of the speed trends in walking competitions have been published.
As in previous years we have followed the model that limits the historical view of the past to the last 20 years.
The years taken into consideration were therefore:
• 20 Km. Men - top (from 2002 to 2021)
• 20 Km. Men - average of the first 20 (from 2002 to 2021)
This year we made the sad decision to exclude the 50km from our main graph precisely because this test will no longer be part of the "major events".
In the next few days we will do the same analysis that we have now limited to the 20km also for the 50km as the last year of this glorious race, which we will publish with some regrets.
We will then try to reconstruct at least until 2010 the history of average speeds in what will be the new 35km race.
A few comments
The suspension of some RusAthletics (Russian Federation) athletes from international competitions continued in 2021.
However, the athletes from that Country competed as much as possible on a national level. The related results were taken into account.
In men's 20km, the athletes of the RusAthletics (Federation of Russia) who influence our graphs this year are only two (in 2020 there were three).
They both obtained their season best in Sochi, RUS on 02/19/2021 at the Russian Winter Championships. I am:
- Vasiliy Mizinov (1:18:45), 11th place in the 2021 list
- Sergey Shirobokov (1:19:23), 17th place in the 2021 list
In the first ten of the world season there are therefore:
- the two athletes from Russia
- six athletes from China, with the following performances all obtained in the Huangshan race of 20.3.2021: Wang Kaihua (1:16:54, new national record of China on 20km and best world performance of the 2021 season), Cai Zelin (1:17:39 - 3rd world performance 2021), Zhang Jun (1:17:39 - 4th world performance 2021), Cui Lihong (1:17:52 - 5th world performance 2021), Sun Shuai (1:18:04 - 6th world performance 2021) and Xu Hao (1:18:44 - 10th world performance 2021). As indicated for women, also for men, the Huangshan race was one of the fastest in the history of the 20km.
It is also particularly interesting to note that in the top ten performers of the season of the three athletes who in Sapporo obtained a medal that only Toshikazu Yamanishi who in Kobe on 21.2.2021 had stopped the clock in 1:17:20 (2nd world performance 2021 ) and that only Wang Kaihua and Zhang Jun managed to enter the top eight athletes at the Olympic Games.
However, we should still reflect on the fact that in the other 10 positions (from 11th to 20th) we find:
- three other athletes from Spain by virtue of the results always obtained in Podebrady 2021: Alvaro Martin (1:19:14 - 15th world performance 2021), Diego Garcia Carrera (1:19:19 - 16th world performance 2021) and Miguel Angel Lopez (1: 19: 215 - 18th world performance 2021)
- then we find in addition to Yamanishi also two athlete from Japan Eiki Takahashi also with the performance obtained in Kobe (1:18:04 - 6th world performance 2021) and finally the silver from Sapporo, Koki Ikeda (JAP) with his 1:18:45 (11th world performance 2021) also obtained in Kobe.
- in the top twenty performers there are still two athletes from China: Zhang Yao (1:18:59 - 14th world performance 2021), and Niu Wenchao (1:19:33 - 20th world performance 2021)
- one athlete from Kenya with the performance obtained in Nairobi (KEN) on 18.6.2021: Samuel Ireri Gathimba (1:18:23 - 8th world performance 2021)
- one athlete from Ukraine with the performance obtained in Antalya (TUR) on 6.3.2021: Eduard Zabuzhenko (1:19:29 - 19th world performance 2021)
- and finally Perseus Karlstrom (SWE) who on 14.3.2021 in Murcia (ESP) had stopped the clock in 1:18:45 (11th world performance 2021).
It was just Perseus Karlstrom, who between 2020 and 2021 had known very few defeats when he competed, and in any case had always finished the race in the first three, was the great counter-performance of Sapporo where he failed to enter even the first eight athletes (9th in 1:22:29).
This is the demonstration that the Olympics is a problem that is sometimes not easy to unravel, and that you must first win any medal and then make statements.
In this case we remember a coach who often flaunted the certainty of the gold medal for his athlete only on the performances obtained during the training phase: nothing could be more false and random.
How the average speeds of the 20km have moved in recent years
The average speed of the "best athlete" in the 20km is higher than that recorded between 2017 and 2020:
- 2017: 15.40 km/hr
- 2018: 15.50 km/hr
- 2019: 15.53 km/hr
- 2020: 15.46 km/hr
- 2021: 15.61 km/hr
while the best "all time" average speed is that of 2015, when Yusuke Suzuki with the victory of Nomi on 15.3.2015 finished in 1:16:36 which corresponds to 15,67 km/hr (still the world record today).
Compared to the average of the top 20 athletes during the 2021 season we returned to very interesting values (15,28 km/hr), second only to the historical one of the 2005 season (15.31 km / hr)
With the exception of the 2020 season with many competitions canceled due to the pandemic, the average speed of the top 20 athletes has been increasing since the 2016 season, as follows:
- 2016: 15.11 km/hr
- 2017: 15.16 km/hr
- 2017: 15.18 km/hr
- 2019: 15.27 km/hr
- 2020: 15.05 km/hr (due to the pandemic)
- 2021: 15.28 km/hr
The combined growth of the speed of the "best athlete" with that of the "average of the top 20 athletes", but even more so with the "average of the first 20 athletes" (which unfortunately does not appear in the graph, but which we found to be equal to 15,40 km/hr) makes us say that the time is ripe for Suzuki's world record to be broken either in the 2022 season or the next.
The number of athletes in the top 20 per country
In the last two seasons the following nations have been represented in the first 20 athletes of the 20km:
| Nation | 2021 athletes | 2020 athletes | Difference |
| | | | |
| Japan | 3 | 11 | - 8 |
| China | 8 | 1 | + 7 |
| Russia | 2 | 3 | - 2 |
| Sweden | 1 | 1 | - |
| Italy | - | 1 | - 1 |
| Turkey | 1 | 1 | - |
| France | - | 1 | - 1 |
| Ukraine | 1 | 1 | - |
| Spain | 3 | - | - 3 |
| Kenia | 1 | - | +1 |