The first fight of the year between Martínková and Ďurdiaková on a 20km walk this Saturday in Antalya, Turkey. Will at least one of them manage to make it to the 20km track at the Paris Olympics? 

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On Saturday 20.1. In 2024, the first race of the year Race walking world tour will take place in Antalya, Turkey. The race in Antalya has a bronze level, so the winners can add interesting points to the qualification rankings.

Last year, the race, which usually only takes place in February, was marred by a devastating earthquake that literally shook the southeastern part of Turkey. The race was postponed, but it was still marked by low participation. Many Turkish walking clubs come from earthquake affected areas.

The year 2024 is exceptional for athletes. OH and European Championship in Rome, WC of walking teams in Antalya in April. For the organizers, Saturday's race is a trial test, for the walkers an opportunity to gain points and improve their position in the rankings for various races.

At the start in Antalya on Saturday, almost a hundred male and female athletes will be presented on the turning circuit, which is located on the road near the EXPA, and the competitors can therefore look forward to perfect asphalt.

 At 10:00 a.m. Turkish time (12 o'clock ours, Turkey has not changed time since 2016), men and women will line up for the 20 km walk.

The biggest home draw will be the starting post of junior competitor Hayrettin Yildiz. He is crowned with a whole series of medals from the junior category. Last year, as a junior, he tried 20 km in Alytus and showed an excellent time of 1:27:08. On Christmas Day, literally a few weeks ago, the Turkish NR U 20 went, when he went 10 m in 000:40. At that time, he finished 26 seconds behind Mazlum Demir, who did not break the 25-minute barrier by just a second and will be one of the favorites in Antalya. OR sub 40:1 from last year's Poděbrady will want to improve. It will be interesting to see what kind of performance they will pull together with Demir. Slovak representatives Morvay and Úradník will want to at least step on their heels, or even better, beat both Turks. The official improved his OR in the autumn in Zittau, but for the OH ev. he needs more fast races to be sure of a start in Rome. Morvay, on the other hand, will go to the race encouraged by the little people from training and will certainly want to demonstrate that his transformation into a twentysomething is on the right track.

Among the women, there will be a star Turkish trio and also a Czech star duo at the start. The tiny Turks can be very fast, Meryem Bekmez is last year's champion from the Universiade, but she is also a former ME U 23 and has other medals from her junior years. She, too, will want, together with the U 23 champion from Sweden's Gävle Tekdal, to fight for Olympic safety. Kader Dost will not feel left behind either. The Ukrainian competitor Sholomitska will try for the top twenty (10 km as a junior she walked steadily at the level of 46 minutes). And Eliška Martínková, the Czech number one in the 20 km, will also strive for points in the ranking and to improve her position. She went to Antalya encouraged by the performance from the Jablonec hall.Tereza Durďiaková will also be at the start, who at the moment does not even have a theoretical guarantee of the Olympics, because she does not have enough fast twenties on her account and thus needs not only to come, but also to show a quality performance. She also showed herself in an excellent light in Jablonec and she will want to follow up on the race. One of the favorites of the race is Slovak competitor Mária Katarinka Czaková, who performed sub 1:32 at the December race in Dublin and thanks to the victory and a sufficient number of points, she is currently in the Olympics. However, she knows very well that the spring series of races will bring a whirlwind of great performances, and the female competitors in the fifth ten of the ranking (including our Martínková) will still have to fight a lot for their position.

At 12:35, the U20 and U18 competitors in the 10 km walk will start. He will strive for quality performance from our female competitors Ema Klimentová, who showed excellent form in Jablonec and will fight for the performance that would enable her to start at the MSJ in Lima (47:00). She will be accompanied at the start by her training partner Elizabeth Frankl.

Competitors from UKR, KAZ, CZE, SVK, RO, as well as Hungary and Ireland will start in Antalya. On the day of the race, a link to the on-line interim results should be published on the website of the Turkish Athletics Federation. We wish not only our athletes a quick step and the organizers a successful race. The race will also be a test of new Turkish referees of an international level, because the Turks also expanded the number of those who are on the international panel in the fall.