People involved in race walking will certainly remember the Hungarian Sandor Urbanik, who in the years between 1990 and 2000 was one of the great leaders of the Hungarian race walk.
Urbanik held up to date its most important national record of race walk:
- that of 20km with the time of 1:20:41 established in Podebrady on April 19, 1997
- and that of 50km with the time of 3:48:41 established in Dudince on March 24, 2001
London 2017 has indicatted a new name for the 50km Nyiregyhaza Mate Heleband (HUN) sixth in the circuit race at The Mall.
The athlete declared that he had not felt particularly fit, but had done only targeted training and had followed the advice of his coach Jozsef Pokrivenski.
On the day of the race the alarm clock was at 4:00am after sleeping for about seven and a half hours.
Breakfast made with bread, slices, cheeses and fruit juices, then with the team bus at six and a quarter of an hour later they were already ready for the call room.
A bit of warming (a dozen minutes of walking), a bit of stretching and a bit of gym and then goes for the great adventure.
Mate Helebrand made the race with the following split times
| To km | Full time | Split time | Position | Gain |
| | | | | |
| 10km | 45:32 | - | 21 | - |
| 20km | 1:30:29 | 44:15 | 20 | 1 position |
| 30km | 2:14:41 | 44:12 | 12 | 8 positions |
| 40lm | 2:58:48 | 44:07 | 11 | 1 position |
| 50km | 3.43.56 | 45:08 | 6 | 5 positions |
an impressive regularity in particular in the central part.
This year Mate Helebrand was able to compete in close proximity to his personal best as of the next table
| Event | Result | Previous personal best
| Date | Venue | Position |
| | | | | | |
| 10km | 41:08 | 40:23 | 03.06.2017 | Tatabanya, HUN | 1st |
| 20km | 1:23:11 | 1:22:31 | 30.04.2017 | Bekescsaba, HUN | 1st |
| 50km | 3:43:56 | 3:53:54 | 13.08.2017 | London, GBR | 6th |
while in the 50km of London, his improvement was close to ten minutes (9:58).
If the record of Hungary's Sandor Urbanik, which resist for over sixteen years had to be beaten, London 2017 was the perfect opportunity.
Mate Helebrand in London and with his coach Jozsef Pokrivenski.