World Athletics Race Walking Tour Explained

Sport:	Racewalking
Founded:	2003
Website:	Race Walking

The World Athletics Race Walking Tour (formerly IAAF Race Walking Challenge and World Athletics Challenge - Race Walking) is a racewalking series organised by World Athletics. 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]

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. 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. The 2011 World Championships in Athletics was the first time that performances at a major global athletics championship were included in the series, and this was followed by 2012 Summer Olympics a year later. 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. The 2014 series included the African Championships in Athletics and European Athletics Championships for the first time.

The highest points score achieved in a single series before 2019 is 48, which was achieved by Norway's Kjersti Plätzer in 2009 for women and China's Wang Zhen in 2012 for men. After two seasons when the competition did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the points system was overhauled.

Chinese female walkers Liu Hong and Qieyang Shijie are the most successful athletes of the series, both having won the series on three occasions and being runners-up on one. Australian Jared Tallent and Brazilian Caio Bonfim are the most successful man, with two men's titles and runner-up on two occasions each.

Editions

World Athletics Race Walking Tour editions

	Year	Start date	End date	Meets
1				4	^[2]
2				5	^[3]
3				5	^[4]
4				4	^[5]
5				7	^[6]
6				8	^[7]
7				10	^[8]
8				11	^[9]
9				10	^[10]
10				12	^[11]
11				14	^[12]
12				12	^[13]
13				10	^[14]
14				11	^[15]
15				10	^[16]
16				10	^[17]
17				12	^[18]
18				1	^[19]
19				24	^[20]
20				21	^[21]
21				18	^[22]

Meetings

World Athletics Race Walking Tour 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

2003	Robert Korzeniowski	33	Paquillo Fernández	28	Aigars Fadejevs	27
2004	Robert Korzeniowski	28	Jefferson Pérez	27	Ivano Brugnetti	23
2005	Paquillo Fernández	30	Nathan Deakes	29	Juan Manuel Molina	19
2006	Paquillo Fernández	28	Ilya Markov	28	Hatem Ghoula	20
2007	Luke Adams	36	Erik Tysse	33	Paquillo Fernández	32
2008	Jared Tallent	46	Jefferson Pérez	40	Eder Sánchez	38
2009 ^[23]	Eder Sánchez	44	Hao Wang	42	Luke Adams	22
2010	Chu Yafei	40	Matej Tóth	30	Wang Hao	28
2011	Valeriy Borchin	44	Wang Zhen	30	Chu Yafei	17
2012	Wang Zhen	48	Jared Tallent	40	Chen Ding	38
2013	Jared Tallent	34	Joao Vieira	28	Matej Tóth	26
2014	Ruslan Dmytrenko	29	Jared Tallent	23	Caio Bonfim	18
2015	Matej Tóth	29	Miguel Ángel López	25	Chen Ding	24
2016	Wang Zhen	36	Jared Tallent	27	Andrés Chocho	26
2017	Éider Arévalo	36	Caio Bonfim Andrés Chocho	25	Not awarded
2018 ^[24]	Diego García Lebogang Shange	27	Not awarded		Andrés Chocho	25
2019 ^[25]	Perseus Karlström	32	Toshikazu Yamanishi	30	Diego García	26
2022 ^[26]	Perseus Karlström	3969	Caio Bonfim	3920	Brian Pintado	3887
2023 ^[27]	Caio Bonfim	4075	Perseus Karlström	4032	Brian Pintado	4008
2024 ^[28]	Caio Bonfim	4072	Brian Pintado	4068	Álvaro Martín	4035

Women

2003	Gillian O'Sullivan	29	Kjersti Plätzer	24	Elisabetta Perrone	22
2004	Elisa Rigaudo	30	Claudia Ștef	26	María Vasco	24
2005	Ryta Turava	29	Susana Feitor	24	Claudia Ștef	22
2006	Claudia Ștef	28	Ryta Turava	20	Jane Saville	18
2007	Ryta Turava	40	Kjersti Plätzer	37	Sabine Zimmer	27
2008	Kjersti Plätzer	44	Athanasia Tsoumeleka	38	Claudia Ștef	26
2009	Kjersti Plätzer	48	Olive Loughnane	26	Elisa Rigaudo	28
2010	Vera Santos	40	Melanie Seeger	30	Inês Henriques	25
2011	Olga Kaniskina	44	Liu Hong	34	Melanie Seeger	10
2012	Liu Hong	36	Beatriz Pascual	32	Lü Xiuzhi	30
2013	Elena Lashmanova	38	Inês Henriques	34	Ana Cabecinha	23
2014	Liu Hong	34	Eleonora Giorgi	23	Ana Cabecinha	22
2015	Liu Hong	40	Eleonora Giorgi	27	Érica de Sena	25
2016	Maria Guadalupe González Qieyang Shijie	34	Not awarded		Eleonora Giorgi	32
2017	Érica de Sena	34	Maria Guadalupe González	28	Inês Henriques	24
2018	Qieyang Shijie	34	Érica de Sena	23	Inês Henriques	22
2019	Qieyang Shijie	34	Liu Hong	32	Érica de Sena	22
2022 ^[29]	Kimberly García	4040	Qieyang Shijie	3999	Jemima Montag	3864
2023 ^[30]	Kimberly García	4092	Alegna González	3881	Jemima Montag	3864
2024 ^[31]	Yang Jiayu	3998	Jemima Montag	3938	Kimberly García	3901

See also

• World Athletics Combined Events Tour
• IAAF World Cross Challenge

External links

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

Notes and References

1. http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/information/organizer-details 2015 IAAF World Race Walking Challenge
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20031003062042/http://www.iaaf.org/WRC03/results/year=2003/event=WRC/index.html 2003 IAAF World Race Walking Challenge
3. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2004 2004 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
4. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2005 2005 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
5. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2006 2006 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
6. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2007 2007 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
7. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2008 2008 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
8. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2009 2009 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
9. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2010 2010 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
10. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2011 2011 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
11. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2012 2012 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
12. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2013 2013 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
13. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2014 2014 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
14. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2015 2015 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
15. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2016 2016 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
16. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2017 2017 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
17. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2018 2018 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
18. https://www.iaaf.org/Competitions/iaaf-race-walking-challenge/calendar/2019 2019 IAAF Race Walking Challenge
19. Web site: 2021 Race Walking Tour. World Athletics.
20. Web site: 2022 Race Walking Tour. World Athletics.
21. Web site: 2023 Race Walking Tour. World Athletics.
22. Web site: 2024 Race Walking Tour. World Athletics.
23. http://www.iaaf.org/WRC09/news/kind=101/newsid=54469.html Plätzer and Sanchez receive US$30,000 each – IAAF Race Walking Challenge 2009
24. Web site: 2018 IAAF Race Walking Challenge standings revised . World Athletics.
25. Web site: Karlstrom and Qieyang win 2019 IAAF Race Walking Challenge . World Athletics.
26. Web site: 2022 World Race Walking Tour Standings . World Athletics.
27. Web site: 2023 World Race Walking Tour Standings . World Athletics.
28. Web site: 2024 World Race Walking Tour Standings . World Athletics.
29. Web site: 2022 World Race Walking Tour Standings . World Athletics.
30. Web site: 2023 World Race Walking Tour Standings . World Athletics.
31. Web site: 2024 World Race Walking Tour Standings . World Athletics.