Women will participate
in the senior 50 kilometre race walk at the forthcoming IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships scheduled for May 7 to May 8 in Rome.
This is contained in a statement made available by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Communication Department in Monaco.
“In August 2015, IAAF Competition Rule 261 was amended by IAAF Congress to include the women’s 50km race walk as a listed world record event.
“However, there remained no women’s 50km race walk event on the IAAF calendar and the IAAF Council has recently voted to remedy that situation.
“With immediate effect, the Technical Regulations IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships in Rome have been amended to allow women to participate in the senior ‘50km race walk’ event, together with men.
“Any women’s results in Rome will count equally with the men’s results towards the overall team result in the race which was formally known as the senior ‘men’s 50km race walk,’’ the statement said.
It said that the maximum number of athletes allowed to enter remained seven, while five would compete regardless of the number of men and women.
It also said that the IAAF Council’s decision also extended to the participation of women in future IAAF 50km race walk events for which they qualified until such time as the IAAF introduced a separate 50km event for women.
IAAF President, Sebastian Coe, said “I welcome this amendment which marks one of the last important steps to ensure equal competition opportunities for men and women at IAAF competitions.
“In recent decades, we have seen the introduction of the pole vault and hammer throw for women, while there are still differences in some men’s and women’s events.’’