As already done for women, also for men we have published updated graphs of speed trends in walking events in the Statistics section of Marcia dal Mondo.
As in previous years we have followed the model that:
• limits the historical view to the past 20 years
• and we also continued the analysis of the speed trend in the women's 50km.
The years taken into consideration were therefore:
• 20 Km. Men - top (from 2001 to 2020)
• 20 Km. Men - average of the top 20 (from 2001 to 2020)
• 50 Km. Men - top (from 2002 to 2020)
• 50 Km. Men - average of the first 20 (from 2002 to 2020)
Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 this year the statistical data are much less interesting than in the past.
The lack of important races and the frantic search for some traditional medium-high level competition was the predominant reason for this season.
And also the results, in particular the average speeds of the top 20 "performers" were affected.
This is the main reason that made us decide this year not to publish, as we did in 2019, all that series of subsequent analyzes of "Area vs World" and "Italy vs World" as we realized that they would be be useless and even misleading.
We hope to be able to resume them in the course of 2021, because we know that they had aroused a lot of interest.
A few comments
Also in 2020 the suspension of the RusAthletics (Russian Federation) from international competitions continued.
The athletes of that country, however, competed as much as possible at national level. The related results were taken into account.
20km
Until mid-March some athletes competed in Japan, Turkey and Ukraine.
And it is Japan that reigns supreme in the list. Of the 20 performers considered for averages in the season, well more than half (11 to be exact) are athletes from the Rising Sun.
Kobe (16.2.2020) and Nomi (15.3.2020) were the most performed races.
If we had instead taken into consideration the list generated on the basis of all the seasonal results obtained by a single athlete, then Japan would be present with 12 performances out of 20.
All Japanese are the first five of the list:
- Toshikazhu Yamanishi (1:17:36) - Kobe
- Koki Ikeda (1:18:22) - Nomi
- Eiki Takahashi (1:18:29) - Nomi
- Yusuke Suzuki (1:18:36) - Nomi
- Yuta Koga (1:18:42) - Nomi
Among other things, at the end of the season (14.11.2020) Takahashi (37:25.21), Ikeda (37:25.90) and Koga (37: 35.00) were able to rewrite the all-time history of 10.000m track walk.
The three best Europeans are:
- Vasily Mizinov (RUS) - 1:19:09 - who ranks 6th in the list with the victory of Voronovo (RUS) on 5.9.2020
- Salih Korkmaz (TUR) - 1:19:31 - who ranks 7th in the list with the victory of Antalya (TUR) on 16.2.2020
- Perseus Karlstrom (SWE) - 1:19:34 - who ranks 8th in the list with the third place of Kobe (JAP) on 16.2.2020
There is little else to say except that the average speed of the "best athlete" in the 20km is the average speed recorded in the last four years:
- 2017: 15.40 km/hr
- 2018: 15.50 km/hr
- 2019: 15.53 km/hr
- 2020: 15.46 km/kr
while the best "all time" average speed is that of 2015, when Yusuke Suzuki, who at the time was dedicated only to the 20km while today prefers the 50km, with the victory of Nomi on 15.3.2015 he finished in 1:16:36 which corresponds to 15.67 km/hr.
Finally, the lack of competitions in the season led to a lowering of the average of the top 20 athletes equal to 15.05 km/hr which in 2019 after a series of increasing years had reached 15.27 km/hr.
To find a lower average of the first 20, one must go back to the three-year period:
- 2009: 15.03 km/hr
- 2010: 14.93 km/hr
- 2011: 15.02 km/hr
or even earlier
- 2002: 14.95 km/hr
- 2001: 15.02 km/hr
The Nations represented in the top 20 athletes of the 20km are the following:
| Nation | 2019
athletes | 2020
athletes | Difference |
| | | | |
| Japan | 8 | 11 | +3 |
| China | 4 | 1 | -3 |
| Russia | 2 | 3 | +1 |
| Sweden | 1 | 1 | - |
| Italy | 1 | 1 | - |
| Turkey | - | 1 | +1 |
| France | - | 1 | +1 |
| Ukraine | - | 1 | +1 |
| Spain | 1 | - | -1 |
| Guatemala | 1 | - | -1 |
| Brasil | 1 | - | -1 |
| Germany | 1 | - | -1 |
50km
Due to Covid-19, very little was competed.
The season started in Torrevieja (ESP) on 16.2.2020 and should have continued in Huangshan (CHN) and Bergamo (ITA). The first canceled and the second instead re-programmed in another location, Ostia for 5.12.2020. But it is known that the events of the pandemic have made it postpone again to 23.1.2021 and therefore we will deal with it in 2021.
Instead, after the initial postponements, Voronovo (RUS) on 5.9.2020, Ivano-Frankivsk (URK) on 18.10.2020 and Dudince (SVK) on 24.10.2020, while previously in China in Taian the China Autumn Championships. on 20.9.2020.
Canceled the historic 50km of Wajima (JAP) and Takahata (JAP) in which we were usually used to high level results.
A season to forget therefore that of the 50km with the only acute one scored by Matej Toth (SVK) who stopped the clock in Dudince in 3:41:15 which corresponds to an average speed of 13.56 km/hr.
To find a 50km whose winner had expressed a lower average speed, you have to go back 20 years when in the summer of 2001 (11.8.2001) in Edmonton (CAN) Robert Korzeniowski won in 3:32:08. But they were other times.
Even less interesting is the average speed of the top 20 athletes which stands at 12.98 km/hr, the lowest average since we started our surveys (1994, 26 years ago).
We just want to indicate that the entry standard for the Olympic Games is set at 3:50:00 which corresponds to an average speed of 13.04 km/hr. Well, in the average of the first 20 performances only 9 athletes out of the 20 considered this season have obtained the entry standard.
The nations represented in the top 20 athletes of the 50km are the following:
| Nation | 2019
athletes | 2020
athletes | Difference |
| | | | |
| Japan | 6 | - | -6 |
| China | 6 | 2 | -4 |
| Poland | 2 | 2 | - |
| Belarus | 1 | - | -1 |
| Finland | 1 | - | -1 |
| Norway | 1 | - | -1 |
| Russia | 1 | 6 | +5 |
| Ukraine | - | 4 | +4 |
| France | 1 | - | -1 |
| Portugal | 1 | - | -1 |
| Slovakia | - | 1 | +1 |
| Ecuador | - | 1 | +1 |
| Latvia | - | 1 | +1 |
| Ireland | - | 1 | +1 |
| Germany | 1 | - | -1 |
To download the graph: click here