Dear Santa Claus,

I’m a European 50km race walker and this is the beginning of the letters that are being sent to Lapland these days according to tradition.

However what might a race walker ask a Santa Claus willing to give us a present for ?

Actually we haven’t been very virtuosos in the year that is about to end, indeed we did everything not to deserve any prize.

We have often neglected to participate in our National walking championships even in the most typical races (even those of 20km).

Not to mention the 50km.

We cried out vigorously in support of his maintaining when it seemed to have come out of the Olympic program, but we did not then honor her with our massive presence when the organizers with sacrifice continued in the organizational effort.

In some Countries 50km was replaced at the National Championship level with 35km, in others, where it remained, sometimes we could not even complete the podium in the order of arrival.

Only Dudince can be said to be happy to compete on a participatory level with the Asian starting standards that have been overlooking us for some time.

And yet we have the reigning World Champion and Olympic Champion.

Unfortunately, the latter in 2017 has not competed for a strange coincidence of life, but now that his problem is solved we hope to see him soon among us.

As you can see we also have our faults, but despite everything, if Santa Claus still wanted to give us a gift, what could that be ?

This year we have in Berlin the European Championships that represent for us the most important event of the year with the World Team Championship in Taicang; with the aim of competing best in Berlin, maybe a massive participation in 50km of spring is truly the most appreciated gift.

In the meantime, while I promise that even on Christmas day I will undoubtedly go to train at least once (something quite easy, so maybe 6-7 miles), I better eat a slice of Christmas cake and wish happy New Year to all my walking friends.