Matej Toth became the first four-time winner of the 50km race walk at the Dudince Fifty, clocking a world-leading 3:41:15 on Saturday (24).
Matej Toth hopes his body can withstand one extra of year of training in his push to claim back-to-back Olympic 50km race walk titles in Tokyo next year.
The seventh episode of the current season of IAAF Inside Athletics is available to watch online now and features an exclusive interview with world and Olympic 50km race walk champion Matej Toth.
As any athlete knows, it’s one thing to have a good race now and then, but getting the job done frequently over five years makes you something special.
World and Olympic 50km race walk champion Matej Toth has enjoyed a stellar couple of years in his particular field. Here the Slovakian offers a glimpse into his world by answering our first impressions questions.
For 20 years he had dreamed of this, but only in the past two did he plan for it.
One is the world record-holder, the other is the world champion. But aside from being two of the best race walkers on the planet, Yohann Diniz and Matej Toth are two very different athletes.
A tibia injury at the start of the year threatened to derail Matej Toth’s 2016 campaign, but after a good block of training in Italy, the world champion is said to be back to full fitness.
The 14th edition of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge starts in the Australian city of Adelaide in barely a week’s time on Sunday 21 February and is just one of 11 chances for the top athletes to accumulate points and possibly get a share of the huge $200,000 prize money pot.
Three world records at the championship distances and the third-fastest 50km of all time tells a tale of race walkers shooting for the stars in 2015.
Presumably Matej Toth shook hands with some of his fellow competitors before the start of the 50km race walk on Saturday morning. It would be some time before he would see any of them again.
Victory and a national record went to the home hero Matej Toth of Slovakia at the 34th Dudinska 50, an IAAF Race Walking Challenge meeting on Saturday (21).