As expected, the Oceania Race Walk Championships in Adelaide, Australia (also valid for the IAAF Challenge) have radically changed the world ranking in the 20km season.
At the men's level in the first 10 positions at the moment we find 8 athletes who competed in Adelaide (AUS) while the forced of Jan 1, 2018 remain in two, but with Daisuke Matsunaga (JPN) still have the seasonal leadership.
If we focus on the top 20 positions we find the following Countries represented:
- Japan: 8 athletes
- Australia: 3 athletes
- Poland: 3 athletes
- Sweden: 2 athletes
and with 1 athlete each: Lithuania, Chile, New Zeland and Portugal.
In particular we like to note the leap in quality of Marius Ziukas (LTU), who with his performance today (1:20:31) is getting closer and closer to the record of Lithuania (1:19:29) held since Feb. 19, 1989 from Valdas Kazlauskas, a historical name of the Lithuanian race walk.
Evidently Marius Ziukas has a good feeling with Adelaide; also last year he had obtained the best seasonal performance (1:21:27) on Feb. 19, 2017, but this year the great leap in quality with his first performance under 1:21:00.
Below is the list of the first 20 athletes up to date:
At the female level in the first 10 positions at the moment we find 6 athletes who competed in Adelaide (AUS) while the first two athletes who still have the seasonal leadership, got their result last week competing in Quarteira in the Algarve, POR.
If we focus on the top 20 positions we find the following Countries represented:
- Australia: 8 athletes
- Portugal: 3 athletes
- Spain: 3 athletes
- Lihtuania: 2 athletes
- Perù: 2 atlhetes
and with 1 athlete each: New Zeland and Grecia.
Below is the list of the first 20 athletes up to date:
Most likely the next week with the Japanese Championships in Kobe will also have substantial changes