Colombian Sandra Arenas will make her debut in a historic event at the 2024 Olympic Games: this will be the first mixed race race in Paris

The main novelty in athletics these days Paris 2024 Olympic Games comes with a new test in the march, the first mixed in the history of the discipline, a team relay marathon, made up of a man and a woman. The Colombian Sandra Arenas will be present at the competition.

It will be on Wednesday at the circuit in the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower which hosted the 20-kilometer individual events on Thursday, with titles then for the Ecuadorian Daniel Painted in the men’s category and for the Chinese Jiayu Yang in the feminine.

The search for spectacularity, the adaptation to new, more televised formats and the need for more immediate stimuli led those responsible for athletics and the Olympic Games to reformulate the long distance of race walking.

“We need to make our sport more attractive. That’s my goal,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, referring to the various changes that have been made in recent years in disciplines such as race walking.

In the Olympic Games, The men’s race walk was launched in London in 1908, but the women’s category had to wait until Barcelona in 1992 for a distance of 10 kilometres, which was extended to 20 kilometres in Sydney in 2000.

In the first two decades of the century, the major competitions traditionally had two men’s events (20 and 50 km) and one women’s event (20 km). In search of parity and equality of events, in recent years the 20 km event was kept the same and the 50 km event was eliminated, considered to be uninspiring for spectators, reducing it to 35 km, while a women’s event of that distance was created. The 20 km event was held under this formula. Budapest World Cup from last year.

At these Olympic Games, the two 20 km categories were respected, but the long distance was replaced by a single mixed marathon event.

Which are the rules?

The chosen distance is the legendary marathon distance of 42,195 metres, which will be divided into four sections, two to be run by a man and two by a woman. The subdivision will be into unequal sections, all of them over 10 kilometres long, with pre-determined points for the relays, called the “transfer zone”.

The first leg will be run by the male athlete and will be 11 kilometres and 395 metres long, followed by a 10-kilometre leg for the female competitor. The walker will then take over for 10 kilometres and the female athlete will finish with 10 kilometres and 800 metres.

At the time of the relay, the two athletes must make contact with each other for it to be considered valid. There is therefore no baton to pass, as is the case for example in track relay events. The system of cards and sanctions is maintained.

Once a team has seen three red cards, it will be given a three-minute suspension and a waiting period. After that, each red card will lead to further sanctions, which can lead to disqualification in the case of repeated fouls.

SPORTS

With AFP.