They were twelve races on the 50km organized in these first four months of 2017 in the world.
Of these five we were organized in Europe and seven in the other Continents.
We would like to summarize in the following two tables the individual organizations and the number of athletes who have participated in each race.
Europe
| Venue | Nation | Men at the start | Women at the start | Date |
| | | | | |
| Dudince | SVK | 34 | 2 | 25.03 |
| El Hierro, Valverde | ESP | 21 | - | 04.03 |
| Porto de Mos | POR | 4 | 1 | 15.01 |
| La Roche-sur-Yon | FRA | 12 | - | 12.03 |
| Schinias, Marathonas | GRE | 3 | - | 15.01 |
| | | | | |
| Total of athletes | | 74 | 3 | |
Resto del Mondo
| Venue | Nation | Men at the start | Women at the start | Date |
| | | | | |
| Huangshan | CHN | 56 | 9 | 05.03 |
| New Delhi | IND | 20 | - | 18.02 |
| Monterrey | MEX | 21 | - | 19.03 |
| Santee | USA | 12 | 9 | 28.01 |
| Bragança Paulista | BRA | 6 | 1 | 05.03 |
| Taicang | CHN | 21 | 3 | 16.04 |
| Wajima | JPN | 28 | - | 16.04 |
| | | | | |
| Total of athletes | | 164 | 22 | |
In terms of technical value remains to Dudince at the time the most interesting event of the season, when two performances under 3:45:00 and three more under 3:49:00.
The table, updated to day, presents to our readers the top 20 athletes of the world list of 2017
| Result | Pos. | Athlete | YoB | Nation | Venue | Date |
| | | | | | | |
| 3:43:40 | 1. | Håvard HAUKENES | 90 | NOR | Dudince (SVK) | 25.03 |
| 3:44:42 | 2. | Rafał AUGUSTYN | 84 | POL | Dudince (SVK) | 25.03 |
| 3:46:03 | 3. | Evan DUNFEE | 90 | CAN | Monterrey (MEX) | 19.03 |
| 3:46:12 | 4. | Wenbin NIU | 91 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 05.03 |
| 3:47:18 | 5. | Hirooki ARAI | 88 | JPN | Wajima (JPN) | 16.04 |
| 3:47:37 | 6. | Andres CHOCHO | 83 | ECU | Monterrey (MEX) | 19.03 |
| 3:48:04 | 7. | Pedro Daniel GÓMEZ | 90 | MEX | Dudince (SVK) | 25.03 |
| 3:48:38 | 8. | Qianlong WU | 90 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 05.03 |
| 3:48:39 | 9. | Adrian BLOCKI | 90 | POL | Dudince (SVK) | 25.03 |
| 3:48:41 | 10. | Tongda BIAN | 91 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 05.03 |
| 3:48:56 | 11. | Rafał FEDACZYŃSKI | 80 | POL | Dudince (SVK) | 25.03 |
| 3:49:00 | 12. | Veli-Matti PARTANEN | 91 | FIN | Dudince (SVK) | 25.03 |
| 3:49:17 | 13. | Satoshi MARUO | 91 | JPN | Wajima (JPN) | 16.04 |
| 3:49:49 | 14. | Hayato KATSUKI | 90 | JPN | Wajima (JPN) | 16.04 |
| 3:50:38 | 15. | Dongpo LUO | 95 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 05.03 |
| 3:51:18 | 16. | Quentin REW | 84 | NZL | Monterrey (MEX) | 19.03 |
| 3:52:06 | 17. | José LEYVER | 85 | MEX | Monterrey (MEX) | 19.03 |
| 3:52:30 | 18. | Julio Cesar SALAZAR | 93 | MEX | Dudince (SVK) | 25.03 |
| 3:52:38 | 19. | Lin ZHANG | 93 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 05.03 |
| 3:53:01 | 20. | Damian BLOCKI | 89 | POL | Dudince (SVK) | 25.03 |
To give a clearer picture of the trend of 50km in the first part of the season (twelve races were more or less those of the same period in 2016) we compared the top 20 performances of 2017 with those obtained in the same period of 2016.
| Result | Pos. | Athlete | YoB | Nation | Venue | Date |
| | | | | | | |
| 3:37:48 | 1. | Yohann DINIZ | 78 | FRA | St. Sebastien-Loire (FRA) | 13.03 |
| 3:41:02 | 2. | Zhendong WANG | 91 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 06.03 |
| 3:42:43 | 3. | Yucheng HAN | 78 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 06.03 |
| 3:42:54 | 4. | Wei YU | 87 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 06.03 |
| 3:42:57 | 5. | Andres CHOCHO | 83 | ECU | Ciudad Juárez (MEX) | 06.03 |
| 3:43:22 | 6. | Rafał AUGUSTYN | 84 | POL | Dudince (SVK) | 19.03 |
| 3:43:31 | 7. | Hang ZHANG | 91 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 06.03 |
| 3:45:28 | 8. | Omar ZEPEDA | 77 | MEX | Ciudad Juárez (MEX) | 06.03 |
| 3:46:25 | 9. | Aleksi OJALA | 92 | FIN | Dudince (SVK) | 19.03 |
| 3:47:16 | 10. | Adrian BLOCKI | 90 | POL | Dudince (SVK) | 19.03 |
| 3:47:42 | 11. | Håvard HAUKENES | 90 | NOR | Dudince (SVK) | 19.03 |
| 3:47:44 | 12. | Horació NAVA | 82 | MEX | Dudince (SVK) | 19.03 |
| 3:47:51 | 13. | Jian LIU | 97 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 06.03 |
| 3:48:07 | 14. | Faguang XU | 87 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 06.03 |
| 3:48:23 | 15. | Lin ZHANG | 93 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 06.03 |
| 3:48:31 | 16. | Alex WRIGHT | 90 | IRL | Dudince (SVK) | 19.03 |
| 3:48:32 | 17. | Wenbin NIU | 91 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 06.03 |
| 3:48:42 | 18. | Rafał FEDACZYŃSKI | 80 | POL | Dudince (SVK) | 19.03 |
| 3:49:05 | 19. | Joao VIEIRA | 76 | POR | Dudince (SVK) | 19.03 |
| 3:50:16 | 20. | Qin WANG | 94 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 06.03 |
We must remember that last season two "major events" had been proposed (IAAF World Race Walk Team Championships and Olympic Games), and that both had focoused the interest of many walkers, if only because the first could be a great test for the second, with some of the best athletes had only started racing in May.
This year the training periodization is focoused only to the World Championships in London in the summer and therefore involves different strategies of approach to the races.
Also the race of Rio de Janeiro, while beautiful from the competitive and emotionally (maybe one of the most beautiful of all the Games) was held under atmospheric conditions that certainly did not facilitate the technical result. In fact only the first four athletes with the Rio performance are coming in the ranking of the top ten of the year, and to them adds Kai Kobayashi (JPN) who got the result in Takahata (JPN) in late October.
All these arguments and considerations in our opinion, serve to explain the reasons for which the speed of the best athlete of 2016, the average of the top 10 athletes and finally that of the average of the first 20 athletes, shows in 2017 a decrease ranging from -2.61% to -1.28%.
The following table enhances the values
