In recent weeks, a number of events have taken place in world walking that deserve our attention.

 Referees for the 2024 Olympics in Paris have been selected. The corps of pedestrian judges will consist of seven members, 4 men will be supplemented by 3 women, and the scorer will be the former Slovak pedestrian Zuzana Costin (formerly Malíková). Among the men, Frederic Bianchi will hold the referee's targets, whom Czech pedestrians had the opportunity to meet, for example, at the 2021 European Championship of Walking Teams, and this year Frederic accepted Pepa Smola's invitation to the Prague clockwork. A week later, he assessed the technical performance of the athletes in Zittau.

Another name from Poděbrady is Steve Taylor from Great Britain. The representatives of French athletics Jean-Pierre Dahm and Daniel Michaud (CAN) will also judge. Echo Yeung, who represents Hong Kong, will also judge, Kirsten Crocker will come from Australia and Dolores Rojas from Spain.

Among the referees of all races we can also find the name of Emannuel Tardi, who refereed and competed in Poděbrady and is also a referee in the Czech-German Zittau.

In Dublin, Ireland, on the traditional December date, 17.12. bronze level meeting,

which is also the Irish Championship. The main organizer of that race is none other than Pierce O'Callaghan. After last year's windstorm, this year Dublin welcomed the competitors with de facto ideal racing weather. The biggest star of this meeting is traditionally Perseus Karlström, who is a ward of the Irish elite walker of the past Robert Heffernan.

The Swedish viking, after last year's suffering at the 35 km distance, signed up for the 20 km race this year. On the turning circuit, he showed a start-to-finish style performance that few expected in December. Time  1:18:39

is a repeated confirmation of the OH limit. In second place, Noel Chama from Mexico also performed very well - 1:20:05. Partanen from Finland, who was third at the finish line, could also enjoy his performance 27 seconds below the 81 minute mark. Hungarian competitor Norbert Tóth crossed the finish line in eighth place. After his record-breaking performance at the Pražská hodinovka, he decided to withdraw from the race in Zittau and preferred to prepare for Dublin. He reached a new OR of 1:24:22 and can currently train with the prospect of the EC in Rome. 23 competitors saw the finish line. A whole number of walkers, including Slovaks Morvay and Úradník, did not finish the race.

A huge surprise was born among the women. There was no doubt that Mária Katarinka Czaková was one of the favorites. This season, the Slovak athlete is still getting back into shape after giving birth last year, but she is not leaving anything to the last minute and is fighting hard for her next participation in the Olympics.

After performing sub 1:37 in the Slovak national championship on the track in October and then third place in Zittau, she managed a perfect, in fact Olympic, shot. From the beginning of the race, she was in the leading group, she flew through the second ten in sub 45 minutes and in her second career best time - 1:31:42, she managed not only a clear victory, but also a real Olympic hope. She was only 2 seconds short of the sharp limit for the EC in Rome, and thanks to the bonus points, she is not only in Rome at the moment, but also in Paris! Sure, it will still be a tough fight in the spring, but her starting position through 2024 is excellent.

Greek pedestrian Tsinopoulou was more than 3 1/2 minutes back for second place, and third place was taken by another Greek woman, Fiaska, with a performance of over 1:37. 15 female athletes saw the finish line.

In the inserted 10 km race, we had the opportunity to see the return of the British walker Callum Wilkinson, who is returning after prolonged health problems. With a time of 42:18, he is still behind his previous performance, but it shows that his preparation is going in the right direction.

Slovak athletes Bátovský / Dudová dominated the 10 km youth race.

However, what was most interesting in Dublin is the first Olympic relay in Europe. Around the world, competitors on the South American continent and in Osaka, Japan have already tried the relay, but it was the first time in Europe. And it was definitely something to look at. 4 teams applied - SVK, Ireland, Finland and Hungary.

From the beginning, the home team consisting of Brendan Boyce (he dominated the top ten in Olomouc this year) and Kate Veale was in the lead. The Finnish walkers Jokinen - Veikkola kept up with them. Men walked the first 12 km section, followed by three 10 km long sections. Slovak competitors started more cautiously and their strategy was to accelerate in the second half. The prudent start paid off and the pair Černý - Burzalová reduced the lead of the leading teams. The Slovaks entered the last ten in second place with a loss of more than a minute to the leader of the Irish. With a concentrated performance, Burzalová managed not only to outrun the Irish woman, but also to give her 31 seconds. The time of 3:11:17 is sixth in the world at the moment, but that doesn't mean anything, given the way the Olympics are qualified. However, the Slovaks gained valuable experience for the spring fight for Paris.

Overall, it can be said that our neighbors' strategy with a number of national championships in the fall is working out. If we add to that their form, which they sold in Zittau and Dublin (the Zittau race was highly praised by the organization, Dublin was also evaluated very negatively on the association's website),

then their chances of participating in Paris, when they have the chance to take additional bonus points thanks to the championships next year, more than real. In Antalya, if the races in Dudince and Poděbrady are solidly taken, they will also be able to fight for the relay. We can only envy their drive to the goal and their strategic thinking.

However, the December races do not end in Dublin. 24.12. there was a race in a Turkish city Adana.

Turks do not celebrate Christmas, although we can see a Christmas tree everywhere in Turkey. However, it is called Yılbaşı ağağı (New Year's tree) there, so the Turks could go to the races on Christmas Day instead of wrapping carp. The race took place in the stadium and the main distances were 10 m distance. Among the men, Mazlum Demir managed to win in just 000 second over 1 minutes. Behind him for the U40 national record was the third from this year's Poděbrady, Hayrettin Yildiz. The performance of 20:40 is a significant personal record for the nineteen-year-old athlete. The first 26,5 juniors went under 3 minutes.

Among the women, tiny Ayše Tekdal won in a training pace of 47:43,9.

The competitions took place under the strict supervision of new judges of international level. Gaye Bekler, son of national team coach Serhat Akyavaş, passed the tests for the silver level in the autumn term.

and Yeliz AY Yildiz, a participant in the 1998 Olympic Games in Atlanta or the WC in Poděbrady.

In addition to road races, the indoor season is also starting. In Slovakia, a 3000 m long race was held in Banská Bystrica. Slovakian Burzalová set a personal record of 13:22.0, among men Dominik Černý won with a time of 11:35,4.

And one more very interesting news came from abroad. Today, former elite walker Tom Bosworth from Great Britain has become a Member of the Order of the British Empire. He received the award from King Charles not only for his results, but above all for his unceasing work in popularizing walking, which has a real impact on the community, and Tom was and is an example to others with his work. Tom is the first walker to receive this award. For the uninitiated, Tom was the one who first introduced walking to the Diamond League (first in 2017). In Britain he took part in a number of shows where he taught celebrities how to walk, competed in various races with runners and significantly increased the air time that walking is on TV in Britain! Even in walking retirement, he is still a very popular and active spokesperson for the walking community in Britain. He has never been afraid to talk about controversial topics (more than 10 years ago he publicly came out to the LGBT community, which was not common for male athletes at that time), the topic of mental health is also important to him (he can talk publicly about a suicide attempt), but he still and above all remains a prominent figure in walking sports and continues to promote our discipline in recruitment events.

Walking December is a thing of the past and soon we will start counting the first hours of the Olympic year 2024.

The first races will traditionally take place on January 1.1. in Japan.

We wish all our athletes, not only the elite ones, good health until 2024. Everything else is just up to the athletes and their training morale.

So below is another photo from this year's last training session 31.12.2023, 18:XNUMX, Schöneben, Austria (.....and tomorrow we continue....!)

We wish everyone a successful entry into 2024 and lots of health, happiness and joy in it / Wir wünschen allen einen guten Rutsch ins Jahr 2024 und dafür Gesundheit, Glück und Freude.