MARCIA ITALIANA
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HOW TO JUDGE RACE WALKING
by Jeff Salvage & Gary Westerfield


 

08/11/2019   Evolution of the average speed of the best athlete and the top 10 athletes in 20km women: "Italy vs World"






Also this year Marcia dal Mondo wanted to enrich its statistical analyzes by adding the following interesting comparisons:

 
a) 20 km men: the speed of the top athlete in Italy compared to that of the top athlete in the World
 
b) 20 km men: the average speed of the first 10 athletes in Italy compared with that of the first 10 athletes in the World
 
In 2018 and earlier this average speed had been compared considering the top 10 athletes of Italy, against the top 20 athletes in the world.
We were afraid of not having 20 athletes for all race walk events in order to have a homogeneous average, or to have but of a strongly lower level than the first 10 so that the same average was distorted in negative by their performances.
For this reason we decided in 2019 to rewrite the world averages considering the first 10 athletes and finally we have limited the comparison to the last 10 years.
We will behave similarly also in the future.
 
The chart that we propose to our readers is quite simple in its reading, but some more precise informations are needed.
 
 
Italy best vs World best
 

The ten-year cycle started in 2010 ended this season with interesting performances for the Italian women's race walk also for the 20km.
On a worldwide level of "top athlete" the stratospheric results obtained by Yelena Lashmanova were not repeated with the same intensity and there was a drop in the speed that in the last two years had reached unthinkable values ​​(2018: 14.35 km/hr - 2019: 14.20 km/hr). But these performances obtained in local competitions in Russia have only a statistical value for the known reasons.
On the other hand, the average speed of Italy's top athlete in 2019 (Eleonora Anna Giorgi) dropped to 13.67 km/hr, while in 2018 Antonella Palmisano was able to walk on 20km at an average of 13.71 km/hr.
 
The worst year for Italian women was 2010 when the then top athlete, Sibilla Di Vincenzo, failed to get better in a 20km time of 1:32:10 (average of 13.02 km/hr) when at World level Anisiya Kornikova (later Kirdyapkina) performed 1:25:11 (average of 14.09 km/hr).
A gap of -1.07 km/hr.
 
In the following years at the level of "top athlete" the average speed on the 20km was greatly improved in Italy.
The best years were 2014, 2015 and 2017 in which the gap was very small, but we will see it in the following table in which we summarize the differences found in the decade of the average speed of the best athlete on the 20km.
 

 

 

Anno

World 

Top speed

Italy

Top speed

Difference

in km/hr
       
2010 14,09 13,02 - 1,07
       
2011 14,10 13,23 - 0,87
       
2012 14,11 13,70 - 0,41
       
2013 13,98 13,93 - 0,45
       
2014 13,87 13,78 - 0,09
       
2015 14,18 13,91 - 0,27
       
2016 14,12 13,63 - 0,49
       
2017 14,07 13,86 - 0,21
       
2018 14,35 13,71 - 0,64
       
2019 14,20 13,67 - 0,53

 

 

 

Average top 10 athletes Italy vs average too 10 athletes World

 

 

In this table we summarize the differences found in the decade of the average speeds of the first 10 athletes on the 20km.

 

 

Anno

World average

top 10 speed

Italy average

top 10 speed

Difference

in km/hr
       
2010 13,67 12,16 - 1,51
       
2011 13,61 12,29 - 1,32
       
2012 13,84 12,40 - 1,44
       
2013 13,76 12,61 - 1,14
       
2014 13,75 12,33 - 1,42
       
2015 14,00 12,95 - 1,05
       
2016 13,86 12,67 - 1,19
       
2017 13,88 12,67 - 1,21
       
2018 13,81 12,51 - 1,30
       
2019 13,88 12,40 - 1,48

 

 


We are sorry to point out, but at the level of the average of the top 10 athletes we see Italy for years in a fairly pronounced decreasing phase.
From 2010 to 2013 there was a slight growth even if lower than the current average levels. In 2014 with the maternity of Elisa Rigaudo the gap of Italy with the average speed of the top 10 in the World registered a sharp drop, only to quickly return to growth in the 2015 with the return to the athlete's races after motherhood.
 
A subsequent drop again in 2016 (explained by the two disqualifications suffered by Eleonora Giorgi in Rome 2016 and Rio de Jasneiro 2016) and then the average stabilized in 2017.
 
The subsequent final withdrawal from the races of Elisa Rigaudo and the decision of Eleonora Giorgi to compete in 50km, (finally sh earned her the long-awaited bronze medal in Doha 2019), completed the pattern of the average speed of the first 10 Italian athletes compared to that of the top 10 in the world.
 
It seems as if the 2010-2019 decade has passed on average for the movement of the women's race walk in Italy with almost nothing at all.
In 2010 the "Italian best 10" walked on average at 12.16 km/hr (in the World: 13.67 - difference -1.51 km/kr).
In 2019 the "Italian best 10" walked on average at 12.40 km/hr (in the World: 13.88 - difference -1.48 km/kr).
But this is not the case: it is sufficient to remember, on an individual level, the four medals won by the Italian women between the World Championships and the European Championships in the decade.
The female top athletes have done their duty very well.
There is still missing a generalized growth behind them !
The results and successes in shorter distances in U18 and U20 categories are no longer enough if these are not subsequently transformed into excellent (or at least good) 20km performances.
 
Glenda Morejon (ECU) teaches us.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 




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