IAAF Race Walking Challenge

The IAAF Race Walking Challenge is a racewalking series organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Athletes accumulate points in specific race walk meetings during the season. Performances in 10 kilometres race walk, 20 kilometres race walk and 50 kilometres race walk count towards athlete's final scores. Since 2011, racewalking performances at the World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games count towards the series. Women have competed in the 50 km distance since 2018.[1]

IAAF Race Walking Challenge

Sport	Racewalking
Founded	2003
Official website	Race Walking

Liu Hong, the series' most successful athlete, racing at the 2013 World Championships

The series started as a global tour of elite-level, independently-held racewalking meetings. From 2007 to 2012, the series culminated in the IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final. The inclusion of the 2008 IAAF World Race Walking Cup in 2008 marked a move to incorporate international championships into the series.[2] The World Cup returned to the tour in 2010, which was also the first time that the Australian Race Walking Championships was added to the calendar.[3] The 2011 World Championships in Athletics was the first time that performances at a major global athletics championship were included in the series,[4] and this was followed by 2012 Summer Olympics a year later.[5] The series was remodelled in 2013, as the Challenge Final was abolished and instead all the global and continental racewalking competitions were included: the Oceania Race Walking Championships, the Asian Race Walking Championships, the European Race Walking Cup, the African Race Walking Championships, South American Race Walking Championships and the Pan American Race Walking Cup.[6] The 2014 series included the African Championships in Athletics and European Athletics Championships for the first time.[7]

The highest points score achieved in a single series is 48, which was achieved by Norway's Kjersti Plätzer in 2009 and was matched by China's Wang Zhen in 2012. Chinese female walker Liu Hong is the most successful athlete of the series, being the only person to win the series on three occasions. Australian Jared Tallent is the most successful man, with two men's titles and runner-up on two occasions.

Editions

Edition	Year	Start date	End date	Meets	Ref.
1	2003	8 March	7 June	4	[8]
2	2004	20 March	20 June	5	[9]
3	2005	19 March	4 June	5	[10]
4	2006	25 March	1 May	4	[11]
5	2007	10 March	29 September	7	[12]
6	2008	8 March	21 September	8	[2]
7	2009	8 March	19 September	10	[13]
8	2010	13 February	18 September	11	[3]
9	2011	19 February	17 September	10	[4]
10	2012	25 February	14 September	12	[5]
11	2013	23 February	13 August	14	[6]
12	2014	2 February	14 August	12	[7]
13	2015	22 February	28 August	10	[14]
14	2016	21 February	19 August	11	[15]
15	2017	19 February	13 August	10	[16]
16	2018	11 February	24 September	10	[17]
17	2019	1 December 2018	22 October	12	[18]
18	2020				[19]

Meetings

#	Meeting	City	Country	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
1	Grand Prix Internacional de Marcha Tijuana	Tijuana	Mexico	X	X	X
2	Grande Prémio Internacional de Rio Maior em Marcha Atlética	Rio Maior	Portugal	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
3	Gran Premio Cantones de La Coruña	A Coruña	Spain	X	X	X	†	X	X	X	X	‡	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
4	Coppa Città di Sesto San Giovanni	Sesto San Giovanni	Italy	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
5	Kunshan IAAF Race Walking Challenge	Kunshan	China		X
6	Cixi IAAF Race Walking Challenge	Cixi	China			X
7	Yangzhou IAAF Race Walking Challenge	Yangzhou	China				X
8	Tlalnepantla de Baz IAAF Race Walking Challenge	Tlalnepantla de Baz	Mexico				X
9	Naucalpan IAAF Race Walking Challenge	Naucalpan	Mexico					X
10	Shenzhen IAAF Race Walking Challenge	Shenzhen	China					X
11	Na Rynek Marsz!	Kraków	Poland					X	X	X	X
12	IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final	Various	Various					X	X	X	X	X	X
13	Circuito Internacional de Marcha Chihuahua	Chihuahua City	Mexico						X	X	†	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
14	Beijing IAAF Race Walking Challenge	Beijing	China						X		‡
15	IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships	Various	Various						X		X		X		X		X		X
16	Memorial Mario Albisetti	Lugano	Switzerland							X	X	X	X	X	X
17	Marxa Santa Eulalia	Santa Eulària des Riu	Spain							X
18	Wuxi IAAF Race Walking Challenge	Wuxi	China							X
19	Dublin Grand Prix of Race Walking	Dublin	Ireland							X		X		X
20	Australian Race Walking Championships/ Oceania Race Walking Championships	Various	Australia								X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
21	Meeting de Marcha Atlética da Cidade de Olhão	Olhão	Portugal								X
22	Dudinská Päťdesiatka	Dudince	Slovakia								X	X	X		X	X	X
23	Alytus Race Walking festival	Alytus	Lithuania								X		X							††
24	Taicang IAAF Race Walking Challenge	Taicang	China									X	X	X	†	X	X	X	†	X
25	World Championships	Various	Various									X		X		X		X		X
26	Olympic Games	Various	Various										X				X
27	Asian Race Walking Championships	Nomi	Japan											X	X	X	X	X	X	X
28	Poděbrady Race Walking	Poděbrady	Czech Republic											X	X
29	African Race Walking Championships	Belle Vue Harel	Mauritius											X
30	European Race Walking Cup	Various	Various											X		X		X		X
31	Pan American Race Walking Cup	Various	Various											X		X		X		X
32	South American Race Walking Championships	Various	Various												X		X		X
33	African Championships in Athletics	Various	Various												X		X		X
34	European Athletics Championships	Various	Various												X				X
35	Memorial Jerzy Hausleber	Monterrey	Mexico															X	X
36	Around Taihu International Race Walking	Suzhou	China																X	X

• The IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships was known as the IAAF World Race Walking Cup until 2016
• † = Meeting hosted IAAF World Cup/Team Championships
• ‡ = Meeting hosted Challenge Final
• †† = Meeting hosted the European Race Walking Cup
• The 2016 and 2017 Chihuahua meeting was held in Ciudad Juárez
• The 2019 series featured three Oceania championship events: the 50 km, the 20 km and the 10,000 m walks[18]

Results

Men

Robert Korzeniowski of Poland won the first two men's titles

Australia's Jared Tallent is a two-time winner

Year	Gold		Silver		Bronze
2003 ()	Robert Korzeniowski  Poland	33	Paquillo Fernández  Spain	28	Aigars Fadejevs  Latvia	27
2004 ()	Robert Korzeniowski  Poland	28	Jefferson Pérez  Ecuador	27	Ivano Brugnetti  Italy	23
2005 ()	Paquillo Fernández  Spain	30	Nathan Deakes  Australia	29	Juan Manuel Molina  Spain	19
2006 ()	Paquillo Fernández  Spain	28	Ilya Markov  Russia	28	Hatem Ghoula  Tunisia	20
2007 ()	Luke Adams  Australia	36	Erik Tysse  Norway	33	Paquillo Fernández  Spain	32
2008 ()	Jared Tallent  Australia	46	Jefferson Pérez  Ecuador	40	Eder Sánchez  Mexico	38
2009 ()[20]	Eder Sánchez  Mexico	44	Hao Wang  China	42	Luke Adams  Australia	22
2010 ()	Chu Yafei  China	40	Matej Tóth  Slovakia	30	Wang Hao  China	28
2011 ()	Valeriy Borchin  Russia	44	Wang Zhen  China	30	Chu Yafei  China	17
2012 ()	Wang Zhen  China	48	Jared Tallent  Australia	40	Chen Ding  China	38
2013 ()	Jared Tallent  Australia	34	Joao Vieira  Portugal	28	Matej Tóth  Slovakia	26
2014 ()	Ruslan Dmytrenko  Ukraine	29	Jared Tallent  Australia	23	Caio Bonfim  Brazil	18
2015 ()	Matej Tóth  Slovakia	29	Miguel Ángel López  Spain	25	Chen Ding  China	24
2016 ()	Wang Zhen  China	36	Jared Tallent  Australia	27	Andrés Chocho  Ecuador	26
2017 ()	Éider Arévalo  Colombia	36	Caio Bonfim  Brazil Andrés Chocho  Ecuador	25	Not awarded
2018 ()	Diego García  Spain Lebogang Shange  South Africa	27	Not awarded		Andrés Chocho  Ecuador	25

Women

Claudia Ștef had minor placings before winning the 2006 series

Year	Gold		Silver		Bronze
2003 ()	Gillian O'Sullivan  Ireland	29	Kjersti Plätzer  Norway	24	Elisabetta Perrone  Italy	22
2004 ()	Elisa Rigaudo  Italy	30	Claudia Ștef  Romania	26	María Vasco  Spain	24
2005 ()	Ryta Turava  Belarus	29	Susana Feitor  Portugal	24	Claudia Ștef  Romania	22
2006 ()	Claudia Ștef  Romania	28	Ryta Turava  Belarus	20	Jane Saville  Australia	18
2007 ()	Ryta Turava  Belarus	40	Kjersti Plätzer  Norway	37	Sabine Zimmer  Germany	27
2008 ()	Kjersti Plätzer  Norway	44	Athanasia Tsoumeleka  Greece	38	Claudia Ștef  Romania	26
2009 ()[20]	Kjersti Plätzer  Norway	48	Olive Loughnane  Ireland	26	Elisa Rigaudo  Italy	28
2010 ()	Vera Santos  Portugal	40	Melanie Seeger  Germany	30	Inês Henriques  Portugal	25
2011 ()	Olga Kaniskina  Russia	44	Liu Hong  China	34	Melanie Seeger  Germany	10
2012 ()	Liu Hong  China	36	Beatriz Pascual  Spain	32	Lü Xiuzhi  China	30
2013 ()	Elena Lashmanova  Russia	38	Inês Henriques  Portugal	34	Ana Cabecinha  Portugal	23
2014 ()	Liu Hong  China	34	Eleonora Giorgi  Italy	23	Ana Cabecinha  Portugal	22
2015 ()	Liu Hong  China	40	Eleonora Giorgi  Italy	27	Érica de Sena  Brazil	25
2016 ()	Maria Guadalupe González  Mexico Qieyang Shenjie  China	34	Not awarded		Eleonora Giorgi  Italy	32
2017 ()	Érica de Sena  Brazil	34	Maria Guadalupe González  Mexico	28	Inês Henriques  Portugal	24
2018 ()	Qieyang Shenjie  China	34	Érica de Sena  Brazil	23	Inês Henriques  Portugal	22

See also

• IAAF Combined Events Challenge
• IAAF World Cross Challenge

References

1. 2015 IAAF World Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2015-05-02.
2. 2008 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
3. 2010 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
4. 2011 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
5. 2012 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
6. 2013 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
7. 2014 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
8. 2003 IAAF World Race Walking Challenge. IAAF (archived). Retrieved 2019-10-19.
9. 2004 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
10. 2005 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
11. 2006 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
12. 2007 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
13. 2009 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
14. 2015 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
15. 2016 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
16. 2017 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
17. 2018 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
18. 2019 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
19. 2020 IAAF Race Walking Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
20. Plätzer and Sanchez receive US$30,000 each – IAAF Race Walking Challenge 2009. IAAF (2009-09-22). Retrieved on 2009-10-01.

External links

• Official website
• Results 1961–2006 at gbrathletics.com
• 2008 Rules (PDF)