The two women's races were very interesting especially for the generational change they showed.

The area of ​​South America is becoming, but we have been saying it for some time, a valid alternative to Europe and Australia.

20km women

A major generational change is taking place in China.

We got confirmation from Qieyang Shenjie’s third place and from Liu Hong who had decided her participation in Oregon 2022 only three months ago, and finished fifth in 1:29:00. We dare not imagine what she could have done if she had trained as she knows how to do all winter.

We believe Kimberly Garcia's stunning race wouldn't have been that easy.

But the generational change is not just a China issue.

Four of the top ten ranked athletes are over 30 years old and only four others (Jemima Montag, Namako Fujii, Alegna Gonzalez and Ma Zhenxia) are 24 or younger. What's more, they struggle to emerge, like veterans Liu and Qieyang.

Liu Hong won her first medal in 2009 in Berlin at the age of 22 and in Daegu 2011 (24) she won gold. Teammate Ma Zhenxia was unable to confirm the victory in March in Oman, with a frightening alternation of ups and downs.

Absent Antonella Palmisano, Sandra Lorena Arenas and Erica Rocha de Sena, in technical involution Maria Perez, the world panorama presented Kimberly Garcia Leon who under the guidance of Andres Chocho made the qualitative leap in 2022.

35km women

We have already said that in our opinion the 35km will favour the athletes coming from the 20km. Fortunately, the history of the 50km had just begun in the women's field and had to be rewritten.

It was rewritten in Eugene on a hot day, by the same three athletes who had won the three medals in the 20km, in an interesting race, but at times also predictable and boring.

Even here, however, it must be emphasised that only the Chinese Yin Lamei (finished 10th) is 20 years old. Zdzieblo (POL) and Sonoda (JPN) have 26 with three over 30s.

20km men

For a couple of years now, athletes from the Rising Sun have been collecting medals. Since Doha 2019 they have rewritten the history of race walking for results, but above all for a different technical approach.

The "Japan model" consists of a shortening of the pace, a more prolonged push phase, and a frequency that was previously unthinkable.

We delighted in counting/timing Yamanishi's steps in the crucial phases of the 20km. Almost always above 3.8 paces per second with peaks of 3.95 paces per second.

With incredible joint mobility and perfect movement of the hips, we cannot deny that their walk has become even more acceptable to the eyes of the judges and the public.

This is an epochal change, and as such it has been adopted by many others, including the new name of the world race walk, the one who comes from Kenya, Samuel Kireri Gathimba capable of fighting for a bronze, which would also have been deserved, up to about twenty meters from the goal line.

It is very interesting to note the partials every 5km: 20:12 + 20:21 + 19:24 + 19:10.

This is the race strategy today: only 5km of study and then off in a Rossini crescendo.

We believe it will still be like this for a long time.

35km men

Up to 20km there was everything: the escape, the recovery, the collapse.

Then in nine who will reduce lap after lap up to 30km when they are still in five. He Xianghong suddenly gives up, making four laps at an average of 4:18 and then resuming fighting (4:07) in the last lap with Brian Daniel Pintado for the 4th place. In the end, only 8 seconds will separate them.

The penultimate to yield is that Perseus Karlstrom bolt that continues at 4: 03-4: 04 and then slows down only when he realizes that it becomes impossible to fight for silver and gold.

And we come to Stano and Kawano. It is from the 29th km that Stano conducts the orchestra and Kawano behind him.

The last 5km are impressive (4:03 + 4:04 + 4:00 + 3:53 + 3:50) in which we have reviewed that flash of frequencies over 3,8 paces/sec.

Kawano detaches and recovers, once, twice. At the third he seems to give up definitively. But thanks to a stumbling block of Stano it is not like that. The Japanese still comes under up to two meters; he will collapse to the ground after the finish, but second.

Stano's race strategy was the same as Yamanishi's in the 20km with these split times every 5km: 21:03 + 20:28 (41:31) + 20:31 + 20:38 (1:22:40) + 20: 20 + 20:18 (2:03:04) + 19:50 = 2:23:14

Just for the record, with 1:22:40 passing over 20km, Stano would have finished 15th in last week's race, ahead of the first of the Italians Francesco Fortunato (1:22:50).

A final note on why we have chosen the 35km men race as the most beautiful of the four Oregon 2022 walking events.

In the top eleven only two (He Xianghong and Evan Dunfee) come from long distance, the others from 20km.

It is easy to say that the future of the specialty will be in versatility.