A month ago, on July 7 in Jerusalem, the tour de force of the Italian and European walk began, which will end with the European Championships in Munich in about ten days.

But we can already draw conclusions from a technical point of view, which may not be the definitive ones, but they certainly will be for the youth scenario.

If twenty years ago the disqualifications and red cards received by Italian athletes were considered an exceptional event, now, with some exceptions, they are unfortunately on the agenda.

Let's immediately eliminate the possibility of any misunderstanding and let's say that we are not talking about Antonella Palmisano, nor about Massimo Stano, nor about Francesco Fortunato, nor about Valentina Trapletti.

But can Italy that today, and for two more years, will have the honour of having the two Olympic champions of the 20km in charge, present such a low level from a technical point of view as the current one?

We can accept that in the last month out of nine athletes presented in international competitions (and of these six of the youth categories) have collected a basket of 23 red cards which then turned into two disqualifications and as many stops in the penalty area which, Let's try to remember it well, until a decade ago it was disqualification?

We then read in the press, on websites, (and not to mention from that disinformation center called Facebook) of the perennialexcuses about Italian athletes, while always pointing the finger at foreign ones. But we never, ever read anything about our young people.

How can this happen?

Why this misinformation? Afraid of saying "bread to bread and wine to wine"?

Will they all be incompetent those over twenty judges who in four different competitions have sanctioned our athletes with 17 (yes, you read that correctly seventeen) bent knee?

Had they done it for “loss of contact” we could also have accepted by saying to ourselves: "they tried to go fast, but they didn't succeed", but not for bent knee.

This kind of error derives from an incorrect technical setting of the walk and thre movement of the hips is completely to be reviewed.

And if the international judge sees it, then the sanction, sending us this strong message: "Wake up Italy, correct your athletes".

And this message has echoed in a stunned manner in our ears six times this month, costing us four stops in what we call the “purgatory of the walkers”.

In yesterday's two races we received messages from many parts of the world that basically said this: “But how can you present such a lack of technique at a World Championship. You have a history of high-level walkers to preserve ”.

The message that hurt us most is that of a foreign friend who pointed out (but there would have been no need, we had seen it too) that one of our athletes, well hidden in the middle of the group for over thirty minutes of race, as soon as both group opened it was heavily sanctioned.
This dear friend also added a thought that is certainly not favorable to this fact.

We felt ashamed, so much, as never before, for us and for what our Country has always represented in the world of walking. We don't hide it.

We all have the faults.

Starting with the judges of our “Bel Paese” lacking the courage to disqualify in home races, but they have an excuse: they are not the ones who teach the technical gesture. Continuing with the coaches who try all the excuses with a stopwatch in hand to favor their athlete, without having first set him   correctly. We say to them: sooner or later your sins will find you out.

The greatest damage is that of not wanting to realise that if we do not stop this downward slide we will no longer be considered a leader nation.

Wake up Italy take the technique back in hand, before it's too late.