The achievements of our walking judges at the international level.

In the second half of this year, a new challenge for pedestrian referees appeared on the scene of world athletics. As part of the recruitment of new referees of the international level, World Athletics (WA) has announced trials for aspirants for the posts of referees of the silver level.

For the Czech Republic, Miloslav Lapka and Martin Nedvídek from AC Rumburk were nominated by ČAS for training and the subsequent test. One of the conditions for participation in the exam was a good command of English, as the online exams were primarily conducted in English. More than 150 candidates participated in the preparation for the exams.

American referee, walker and great promoter of walking, Jeff Salvage, for the first time in history, analyzed the entire WC in Budapest, measured on the computer the degree of non-contact of individual competitors in various situations, he also focused on knee work. For the first time in history, referees from the highest competition received a perfect analysis of their work. On the basis of these materials, more than interesting webinars were held for future and current international referees.

Aspirants for referee positions were also trained by Pierce O'Callaghan from Ireland (Vice-Chairman of WA and former elite walker) and then completed online tests.

The final exams took place on October 21.10, i.e. on the day of the Prague Pedestrian Clock. Miloslav Lapka is traditionally one of the first to register for this race, Martin Nedvídek also competes regularly in Prague. Both were absent at the start and although they were sorry for not participating, their excuse was more than understandable.

The testing lasted for several hours, in addition to the written and spoken parts, they also evaluated the Budapest one videos. Within the time limit, they had to focus on the competitors marked with an arrow and evaluate whether they are breaking the pedestrian rules.

It was generally expected that the evaluation of the trials would take some time, given their scope. However, the World Walk and WA representatives did some quick work and last week both of our representatives received an email confirming their affiliation with the WA Race Walk Silver level judges. After a long time, Czech walking has 2 representatives on the international panel of judges.

We congratulate both representatives of Czech athletics and especially walking on their extraordinary success.

One of our representatives even passed the tests at the level required for Gold level races, and we can expect even greater success in the future. Bravo.

Test videos with answers were then made available to those interested. Those interested can play the videos at full speed and then look at the results in the answers section. For educational purposes, videos are also published at half and quarter speed. 

https://www.racewalk.com/Officiating/2023SilverExam.php?fbclid=IwAR3VxxVKtXtjcY5oJu4mehUU4zWkmYVOFCLY5dFJzjQJDr90ujghK6aVlw4