In Saransk on Saturday and Sunday the championship of Russia in race walking was held. The winners showed a number of high results, but at the same time made them feel awkward. Sports correspondent explains.
In general, race walking in Russia, thanks to the Saransk school, brought not only numerous medals, but also an indelible disgrace, because of which some of these same medals had to be given back — well, or, as they used to say at our school 35 years ago, «sneak». Many Mordovian champions, unfortunately, turned out to be nurtured on erythropoietin, to which the life-long disqualified coach Viktor Mikhailovich Chegin had a hand (although his portrait on the honor roll in the center of Saransk continued to hang in recent years).
However, current history concerns that scandal only indirectly. It's just that race walking in Russia, for its complete rehabilitation, must be protected from any absurdities — let's call this soft word what happened at the national championship, although today's youth would rather use the term «krinzh». And if you look deeper and remember that all domestic athletics now cannot afford to sit in a puddle, then you can pick up words and sharper.
Now to the heart of the matter. «The 2023 champion of Russia in the 35 km walk with a new national record was Klavdia Afanasyeva (Republic of Mordovia) — 2:37.11,» the official account of the All-Russian Federation of Athletics (ARAF) reports, adding that her result also exceeds the world record, however he cannot be approved due to the absence of three international judges at the competition. A video with the finish of the new champion is attached to the publication.However, even without any international judges, it is clear to the naked eye that Afanasyeva, approaching the finish line, does not walk, as it should be for a race walking master, but frankly runs. An elementary press of the «pause» button allows you to identify her flight phase not at one or two, but at almost every step. Recall that according to the rules of a walker, one leg must always be in contact with the ground. There's nothing even close here: a completely natural run.
Exactly the same violation can be seen in other videos posted from the finish line. For example, the champion of Russia in 2023 Elvira Chepareva finishes the 20-kilometer distance by running. Artyom Selin, the winner of the Russian championship among athletes at a distance of 20 km at the age of 23, does not really care about the presence of a «flight phase» in the last meters of the distance. The female champion in the same discipline, Anastasia Trukhova, frankly runs. Everything is elementarily confirmed by screenshots.
I think these examples are enough to ask a few questions. The most banal — and where, in fact, the judges are looking — is rhetorical. Obviously not on the feet of running walkers. However, other questions are unlikely to be answered. For example, this: what then could happen somewhere in the middle of the distance in the absence of television cameras, if at the finish line, knowing that they are being filmed, the athletes do not even try to keep up appearances? Is it because they feel permissiveness, no matter what it was caused by — low qualification of judges or something else.
So, last year, all three men's prizes in this nomination were taken by walkers — Vasily Mizinov, Anton Kurbatov and Danila Martynov. Among women, Margarita Nikiforova, a representative of this discipline, also became the leader, and only the second and third places were taken, respectively, by the silver medalist of the Tokyo Olympics in the pole vault Anzhelika Sidorova and the Olympic high jump champion Maria Lasitskene. A simple calculation shows that the masters of race walking — or, as the videos posted in the public domain, sometimes unsportsmanlike running — took one and a half million rubles out of two in 2022.
It is very likely that even now the Russian record will help Claudia Afanasyeva in the fight for solid prize money. But is this fair if there is a clear violation of the rules, pulling on a forgery? Recall that in the history of race walking, athletes were repeatedly disqualified after the end of the competition, and this happened even at the Olympic Games. It seems that now is quite the case when you can show integrity, even if a couple of days have already passed.
But you can pretend as if nothing happened. Only then, one should not be surprised if Russian walkers — when they, of course, begin to compete in international tournaments again — will be disqualified long before the finish line. As, in fact, it happened at the last Olympics in Tokyo with their participation at a distance of 20 km for men, when Vasily Mizinov was removed from the track 7 km before the end. It is customary for us to complain about bias in such cases — but don't we ourselves give a reason to such «finishes»?