Race walking is style, but it is also fair play: the Orientals, in particular, are teaching it to us and it is born from the common effort.

In a specialty of athletics in which the respect for the rules has a very high weight and depends on a human judgment (and therefore not infallible) the athlete should learn together with the technical gesture also the fair play.

We recognize that this kind of culture is a bit difficult to assimilate in certain environments.

But in athletics in general and in race walking in particular this should be part of the "hand luggage" of those approaching this specialty.

A pillar of the style of the historic and pioneering race walk, Giuseppe Dordoni, said: "It is the respect of the opponents, all rigorous professionals, that we must always keep in mind, besides remembering that it is not only important to win, but also how you win" .

The Chinese women's trio gave us a lesson in good taste in Doha, like Toshikazu Yamanishi in La Coruna 2019 waiting for Massimo Stano, the toughest defeated opponent and honoring him.

The life of Liu Hong and Qieyang Shenjie from 2012 to today has been studded with alternating sporting fortunes and as many disappointments, but the embrace on the Doha finish line was sincere, as sincere was that between Hirooki Arai and Evan Dunfee at the airport of Rio de Janeiro.

In race walk, on the athletic fields and on the roads, we should be educated up to the young to respect the opponents and to the relationship with the judges: in this sport if the verdict is a disqualification or a stop, even if long, in the Penalty Zone you cannot scream in the face of the Judges your reasons, as unfortunately often happens in football.

If you, or your coach, will ask for the reasons after the race, you will certainly understand that maybe those three red cards were acceptable, which means rolling up your sleeves for the future.

Combined with the fact that, finally, for one thing, it is the judgment of the jury, in addition to the stopwatch, to make you understand if you are strong (Jefferson Perez said: “I have an excellent relationship with all the judges, they help me where my coach and I we don't get it") not the coach, much less your parents who see you sometimes as a martyr, and even less the comments on Facebook.