The 2018 European Championships that will take place in Berlin are approaching.
This for the athletes of Europe, after the IAAF World Team Championships that took place in Taicang in May, is the second of the most important goals of the season.
We begin with the publication of the seasonal list of the first 30 athletes, in which we highlighted in red-italic the athletes of Russia who, as known, will not be able to participate in the Championships given the current suspension imposed by the IAAF.
European List 20km women
Out of the games just the first three athletes of the season list there are six athletes in the space of one minute (between 1:27:58 of Julia Takacs, ESP and 1:28:58 of Inna Kashina, UKR).
Taking for granted that it seems that Julia Takacs is oriented to compete in the 50km, the first batch of the favorites sees two Italians (Eleonora Anna Giorgi and Antonella Palmisano), an athlete from the Czech Republic (Anežka Drahotova), the other star of Spain Maria Perez and Ukraine Inna Kashina.
Behind them, as outsiders, seven other athletes (which then again are reduced to six because we believe that Ines Henriques, like Julia Takacs, will participate at 50km.)
They are Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene (LTU), Nadiya Borovska (UKR), Ana Cabecinha (POR), the other two athletes of Spain Laura Garcia-Caro and Raquel Gonzalez and Valentina Trapletti (ITA).
All these athletes present themselves with a season best less to 1:31:00.
European List 20km women less than 5:00:00
The key to reading the 50km women is already in itself very complicated because the values of the leadership that seemed fairly consolidated after the 2017 season that had seen Ines Henriques, triumphing with two world records have been called into question after his abandonment to Taicang, but above all also by the fact that Julia Takacs has obtained respectable results. Another element that must be considered is that in some Countries the approach to Berlin for the 50km women provided for 35km (or 30km) and therefore the results and the potential of some athletes are not comparable.
Another athlete that will not be underestimated is Maria Czakova (SVK), who we remember a beautiful 50km race at the beginning of the season at Dudince which is still worth her the second European performance 2018 on distance. Together with her, we would like to point out the other three athletes who have a season best of less than 4:20:00 which, in our opinion, currently represents the limit between excellence and others. They are: Anastasiya Yatsevich, Nadzeya Darazhuk, and Ainhoa Pinedo.
Among these six athletes in our opinion, and except for surprises, the fight for medals should take place.
Entry list in 20km: click here
Entry list in 50km: click here
(From European Athletics web site)
Slovakia's Matej Toth won the world and Olympic titles in back-to-back years in 2015 and 2016 and the 35-year-old will be looking to complete the set of major titles in Berlin. Toth won a silver medal behind Diniz in Zurich four years ago and leads the 2018 European lists by almost two minutes with 3:42:46 ahead of Finland's Veli-Matti Partanen and Ukraine's Maryan Zakalnytskyy who have also broken the 3:45-barrier this year with 3:44:43 and 3:44:59 respectively.
While he might not be in medal contention this time around, a special mention goes out to Jesus Angel Garcia from Spain who is making his seventh successive European Championships appearance at the age of 48. Garcia has won two medals from his six previous appearances: bronze in Munich 2002 and silver in Gothenburg 2006.
Back when Garcia made his European Championships debut in Helsinki 1994, the longest race walking event on the programme for women was the 10km but for the first time in European Championships history, the women will be taking part in the 50km race walk.
Portugal's Ines Henriques won the inaugural world title in London last August in a since-beaten world record of 4:05:56, although her 2018 campaign hasn’t gone entirely to plan. She was looking to improve on her mark at the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships in Taicang, China in May but she was forced to drop out midway due to illness.
But even if she isn’t in her very best form, Henriques will still be relatively confident of becoming the first European champion in the event. The next fastest on paper are Spain's Julia Takacs and Slovakia's Maria Czakova who hold their country’s national records with 4:13:04 and 4:14:25 respectively.
Takacs leads the 2018 European lists in the 20km race walk but she will be concentrating her efforts solely on the 50km in Berlin. This could lead the way open for Czech Republic's Anezka Drahotova to improve on her bronze medal from 2014 when she made the podium at the age of 19. World bronze medallist Antonella Palmisano and Italian teammate Eleonora Giorgi will also be looking to make the podium after finishing fifth and seventh respectively in Zurich.