Leading race walkers on the international scene during the past 12 months as our annual merit rankings series continues

Once again Athletics International has been pleased to collaborate with Athletics Weekly in producing these annual statistics, writes Peter Matthews.

As always, our world top-10 merit rankings, compiled by an international panel of experts, will no doubt provoke discussion. There can be no definitive pecking order for 2021, but the panel has done its best by carefully applying the various criteria for judging athletes' performances over the year.

Subscribers to AI are receiving this data with our compliments and we hope that AW readers will also find much of interest and value in this section. We wish all readers a happy, healthy, stimulating and peaceful Olympic year.

For our annual world merit rankings, the International selection panel comprised Mirko Jalava (FIN), Alfons Juck (SVK), A Lennart Julin (SWE), Stuart Mazdon UK) and Ed Gordon (USA) joined by Elliott Denman for the walks and this year by Mark Butler, with the editor of “Athletics International”, Peter Matthews.

After the extraordinary year in 2020 compilation there remained difficulties and cancellation of various meetings, particularly early on in 2021. However, the Olympic Games were held successfully as were most of the Diamond League fixtures and, vitally for depth of performance, US collegiate action returned.

Following each athlete’s name in these event-by-event rankings are: date of birth (day.month.year), and in brackets: number of years ranked and 2019 and 2020 top-10 rankings. Then their five/six best marks in 2021 and details of placings and performances in significant competitions. In these results marks in brackets were in qualifying, marks after w/ are best ‘wind legal’ marks in that competition.

» To read all our 2021 rankings – international and British – CLICK HERE

20 KILOMETRES WALK
1. Massimo Stano ITA
27.2.92 (3y, 19- 5)
8 Eur Team 1:20:30
1 OG 1:21:05
2. Koki Ikeda JPN
3.5.98 (4y, 20- 2, 19- 4)
3 JPN Ch 1:18:45
2 OG 1:21:14
3. Toshikazu Yamanishi JPN
15.2.96 (4y, 20- 1, 19- 1)
1 JPN Ch 1:17:20
3 OG 1:21:28
4. Perseus Karlström SWE
2.5.90 (4y, 20- 3, 19- 2)
1 Murcia 1:18:45
1 Eur Team 1:18:54
2 La Coruña 1:19:44
9 OG 1:22:29
5. Diego García ESP
18.6.94 (2y)
2 Murcia 1:19:40
3 Eur Team 1:19:09
1 La Coruña 1:19:37
6 OG 1:21:57
6. Álvaro Martín ESP
18.6.94 (4y)
5 Murcia 1:20:59
2 Eur Team 1:19:14
3 La Coruña 1:19:59
4 OG 1:21:46
7. Wang Kaihua CHN
16.2.94 (5y, 20- 6, 19- 8)
1 CHN Ch 1:16:54
dnf Taicang
7 OG 1:22:03
2 CHN NG 1:20:54
8. Zhang Jun CHN
20.7.98 (1y)
3 CHN Ch 1:17:39
dnf Taicang
8 OG 1:22:16
1 CHN NG 1:20:12
1 CHN NG Team 1:20:33
9. Eiki Takahashi JPN
19.11.92 (5y, 20- 4, 19- 9)
2 JPN Ch 1:18:54
1 Nomi 1:20:19
32 OG 1:27:29
10. Christopher Linke GER
24.10.88 (4y, 19- 7)
3 GER Ch 1:23:09
13 Eur Team 1:22:30
11 La Coruña 1:20:51
5 OG 1:21:50
Very difficult here, trying to compare the Olympic performances in extreme heat and humidity with much faster times, but limited competition, elsewhere.

50 KILOMETRES WALK
1. Dawid Tomala POL
27.8.89 (1y)
5 Dudince 3:49:23
1 OG 3:50:08
2. Jonathan Hilbert GER
21.4.95 (1y)
1 GER Ch 3:43:44
2 OG 3:50:44
3. Marc Tur ESP
30.11.94 (1y)
dnf Seville
1 Eur Team 3:47:40
4 OG 3:51:08
4. Evan Dunfee CAN
28.9.90 (4y, 19- 5)
3 OG 3:50:59
5. Satoshi Maruo JPN
28.11.91 (4y, 19- 3)
1 JPN Ch 3:38:42
32 OG 4:06:44
6. Bian Tongda CHN
1.4.91 (1y)
3 CHN Ch 3:47:56
dnf Taicang
7 OG 3:52:01
1 CHN NG 3:52:16
7. Hayoto Katsuki JPN
28.11.90 (2y)
2 JPN Ch 3:42:34
30 OG 4:06:32
8. João Vieira POR
20.2.76 (2y, 19- 4)
dnf Seville
5 OG 3:51:28
9. Kai Kobayashi JPN
18.5.88 (2y)
3 JPN Ch 3:43:31
10. Masatora Kawano JPN
23.10.98 (2y, 19- 2)
6 OG 3:51:56
Rather like the difficulty with the marathon, Even harder than the 20km walk ranking!

WOMEN

20 KILOMETRES WALK
1. Antonella Palmisano ITA
8.8.91 (7y, 20- 7)
1 Eur Team 1:27:42
1 OG 1:29:12
2. Sandra Arenas COL
17.9.93 (3y, 19- 5)
1 La Coruña 1:28:24
2 OG 1:29:37
3, Liu Hong CHN
12.5.87 (12y, 20- 3, 19- 1)
2 CHN Ch 1:24:27
1 Taicang 1:28:48
3 OG 1:29:57
4 CHN NG 1:29:59
4. Yang Jiayu CHN
18.2.96 (4y, 20- 5, 19- 4)
1 CHN Ch 1:23:49
dnf Taicang
12 OG 1:31:54
1 CHN NG 1:27:14
5. Qieyang Shenjie CHN
11.11.90 (8y, 20- 6, 19- 2)
3 CHN Ch 1:24:45
2 Taicang 1:29:55
7 OG 1:31:04
2 CHN NG 1:27:31
6. María Pérez ESP
29.4.96 (2y)
1 ESP Ch 1:28:26
2 Eur Team 1:28:03
4 OG 1:30:05
7. Yang Liujing CHN
22.8.98 (2y, 19- 3)
5 CHN Ch 1:25:59
1 Taicang 1:29:54
3 CHN NG 1:27:47
1 CHN NG Team 1:30:35
8. Alegna González MEX
2.1.99 (1y)
1 San José CRC 1:34:02
3 Dudince 1:30:08
2 La Coruña 1:28:40
5 OG 1:30:33
9. Yelena Lashmanova RUS
9.4.92 (3y)
1 RUS-w 1:25:41
1 RUS Ch 1:27:52
10. Jemima Montag AUS
15.2.98 (1y)
1 OCE Ch 1:28:50
1 AUS Ch 1:31:51
6 OG 1:30:39

35/50KM WALK
No ranking this year.

» The Athletics International newsletter is edited by Peter Matthews and has for the past 26 years, been keeping readers in more than 50 countries informed of very detailed results (to at least world top 150-200 standards) and news items from around the world. It is available only by email, with at least 35 issues scheduled for 2022.

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» To read all our 2021 rankings – international and British – CLICK HERE