Japan believes it can dominate the men&rsquo;s race walks at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 &ndash; providing it learns lessons from the past.
Toshikazu Yamanishi was a shoo-in for Olympic 20km gold medal on home soil last year. Indeed, his country&rsquo;s rising sons were favourites for a medal sweep, only to see Massimo Stano upset the apple cart. The Italian powered away towards the end, and then paid homage at the finish by bowing to Koki Ikeda and Yamanishi as they crossed in second and third.
But, spurred on by Stano&rsquo;s terrific 35km gold at the World Championships in Oregon, Japan too showed what they can do in that discipline at the All-Japan Race Walking event last month in Takahata.
The times recorded in just about any other country would have been very impressive, but for a country that regularly sees four or five race walkers power under 78 minutes for 20km, it&rsquo;s just the start.
Yamanishi won in 2:26:18, which was good enough for 11th on this year&rsquo;s world list, and 17th all time. He was followed home by Satoshi Maruo in 2:27:33, while Subaru Ishida completed the podium in 2:30:37. To put that into context, an end-of-season race &ndash; albeit one for World Championship and Asian Games selection &ndash; still put all three in the world&rsquo;s top 31 for 2022.
Yamanishi&rsquo;s victory was rubber stamped long before the end. He got to 30km in 2:04:57 and was 45 seconds in front of Maruo. The winner could then afford to ease off the pedal during the final 5km before breaking the tape.
Can Japan dominate both men&rsquo;s race walks at the next World Championships, bearing in mind their strength in depth? Yamanishi thinks they can.
&ldquo;Yes, that is possible, in my opinion,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Of course, it is very hard to get medals at the World Championships, but the current Japanese team have enough potential. For that, we have to enhance our performance more and to match peaks on the day of the race.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/637b8e54423f9a07f58572f0.jpg" alt="Toshikazu Yamanishi at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Toshikazu Yamanishi at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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That last part is telling. The bespectacled 26-year-old looked set to cement a glittering career at the Olympics in Sapporo as the then world champion from Doha, 2019. He also boasted the fastest 2021 time: 1:17:36 from February on home soil.
But it all started to unravel on Odori Park as he slipped back over the final 1.5km. Stano and Ikeda heard the bell with a six-second advantage over Yamanishi, who looked unusually spent over that last kilometre.
Stano had nine seconds over Ikeda by the finish, and 23 over Yamanishi, who was forced to wear a relatively disappointing bronze medal on the podium.
He was able to put that behind him in July with World Championships gold for the second time, and admits he&rsquo;s likely to leave it to other teammates like Masatora Kawano, second in Oregon at 35km, even if there is the tantalising prospect of double gold.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not impossible (to win both), but it must be really hard, especially in the men&rsquo;s event,&rdquo; said Yamanishi. &ldquo;Even so, the two golds were won by narrow margins in Oregon.&rdquo;
Indeed, there was only a seven-second difference at 20km (between him and Ikeda), and only one second at 35km.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/637b8e35460c3ea36905dc4d.jpg" alt="Toshikazu Yamanishi and Koki Ikeda at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Toshikazu Yamanishi and Koki Ikeda at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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&ldquo;Winning both requires physical and mental toughness,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;However, looking at the women&rsquo;s case (in the World and European Championships), the same thing could happen in the men&rsquo;s event.&rdquo;
For all that, Yamanishi made plain a serious tilt at 35km is for the future, even if that one-second win by Stano in Oregon was less than two minutes outside the world record (2:21:31).
&ldquo;Now my main event is 20km,&rdquo; said Yamanishi. &ldquo;So, it needs lots of preparation for me to try the current world record at 35km. When I tackle the 35km in earnest in future, of course I&rsquo;ll aim for it.&rdquo;
Although the double word champion is doubtful he will attempt both distances in Budapest, Kawano is not. Given the chance, the world 35km silver medallist thinks two races nine days apart is more than doable. After all, he was a stride behind Stano as both strove for the line in Oregon.
Mouth open, desperately sucking in air, Kawano collapsed over the line to take second place. He and top race walkers know that the difference on any given race day between a medal and nothing can be the blink of an eye.
&ldquo;In the world, there are athletes who win both the 20km and the 35km,&rdquo; Kawano said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s because the strong 20km walkers are performing really well in the 35km. If I am given the chance, I too would like to challenge both 20km and 35km in the same competition.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/637b917c4b143479e53432a6.jpg" alt="Masatora Kawano at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Masatora Kawano at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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It&rsquo;s worth pointing out the 24-year-old from Hyūga&rsquo;s personal best at the shorter distance is only nine seconds behind Yamanishi: 1:17:15 to Kawano&rsquo;s 1:17:24 set in 2019.
The latter now also holds the Asian record for 35km, set in Oregon, and is unlikely to be challenged for the defunct 50km national record of 3:36:45, also set in 2019.
Factor in the likes of Ikeda, Eiki Takahashi, Daisuke Matsunaga, and Isamu Fujisawa &ndash; all with 20km PBs inside 1:18 and all still active, there&rsquo;s reason to believe Japan&rsquo;s men can win all six medals in Budapest on a good day.
The country&rsquo;s senior women are also edging closer to global success, as Yaminishi points out.
&ldquo;Step by step, Japanese women are also getting close to medals,&rdquo; he said.
Nanako Fujii was sixth in Oregon. The 23-year-old went one place better than she managed in Doha in 2019 where Kumiko Okada took sixth in the same race.
&ldquo;They are still in the middle of the road,&rdquo; Yamanishi added, &ldquo;but have improved their performance. I hope they get higher places in Budapest and break the current national record in 2023.&rdquo;
If not them, how about Ai Ooyama and Ayane Yanai in the future?
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/637ba1ca3c7d3a37c8621e92.jpg" alt="Ayane Yanai and Ai Ooyama lead the 10,000m race walk at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22" />
Ayane Yanai and Ai Ooyama lead the 10,000m race walk at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 (&copy; Oscar Munoz Badilla)
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If proof was ever needed the sun continues to rise over Japan&rsquo;s race walk future, it was the tremendous silver and bronze earned by Ooyama and Yanai in the 10,000m race walk at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 in August.
At 16, Ooyama became one of the youngest ever world U20 medallists, and teammate Yani is still 18.
In fact, had Ooyama looked over her shoulder in the last 20 metres, she might have been able to do something about the last-second sprint from Mexico&rsquo;s eventual gold medallist Karla Serrano.
Chances are the rest of the race walking world won&rsquo;t need to look over their shoulders: Japan&rsquo;s race walkers will be ahead in all categories and at all ages.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics

World Athletics Championships, Budapest 2023

Japan believes it can dominate the men’s race walks at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 – providing it learns lessons from the past

Japan aiming to build on recent race walks success in bid for more medals in Budapest

World Athletics is pleased to announce the results of the Athletes' Commission elections, which took place in Eugene during the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
The six new Athletes' Commission members voted on to the Commission are:
&bull; Ivet Lalova-Collio (BUL, sprints) 615 votes &bull; Anna Ryzhykova (UKR, hurdles) 607 &bull; Lea Sprunger (SUI, sprints/hurdles) 585 &bull; Lisanne de Witte (NED, sprints) 560 &bull; Matthew Hughes (CAN, middle distances) 555 &bull; Toshikazu Yamanishi (JPN, race walks) 494
The newly-elected members will fill the spots of the following outgoing Athletes' Commission members:
&bull; Inaki Gomez (CAN) &bull; Kim Collins (SKN) &bull; Adam Kszczot (POL) &bull; Thomas Rohler (GER) &bull; Ivana Vuleta (nee Spanovic) (SRB) &bull; Benita Willis (AUS)
Outgoing and newly-elected members will participate in a handover meeting in November this year together with the <a href="https://worldathletics.org/about-iaaf/structure/commissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continuing Commission members</a>, currently headed by Renaud Lavillenie (FRA, Chair) and Dame Valerie Adams (NZL, Deputy Chair).
&ldquo;I would like to congratulate and welcome the six newly-elected members to our Athletes&rsquo; Commission and thank every athlete who has stood for election and who participated in the vote,&rdquo; said Adams, who was actively involved in promoting the elections on-site in Eugene.
&ldquo;With every year, the voice of the athletes becomes more powerful and proactive when it comes to promoting and advocating for athletes&rsquo; rights at a leadership level. I am sure the newly-elected members will greatly contribute to the future of our sport, with the athlete community in mind."
Since 2019, the Chairperson and one other member of the Athletes&rsquo; Commission &ndash; one man and one woman &ndash; have been full voting members of the World Athletics Council.
This year&rsquo;s elections were postponed by one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Elections will be held again next year during the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023, where six new members will be elected. Six additional members will also be appointed by the World Athletics Council to bring the number back to its intended 18.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: &ldquo;The athlete&rsquo;s voice has been enshrined in our governance structure for the past three years through the Athletes&rsquo; Commission and I am appreciative of the substantial contribution the Commission makes to our discussions at Council level. I would like to welcome the six new members of the Commission and thank the six departing members for their service to our sport. With another election next year in Budapest, I would like to encourage more athletes to consider becoming involved in the decision-making of our sport.&rdquo;
World Athletics

The World Athletics Athletes' Commission elections took place in Eugene during the World Athletics Championships Oregon22

New World Athletics Athletes' Commission members announced

Toshikazu Yamanishi produced a storming final kilometre lap to overcome his Japanese teammate Koki Ikeda and become only the third man in World Championships history to successfully defend the 20km race walk title.
A student of physics at Kyoto University, Yamanishi judged his tactics to perfection to win the first men&rsquo;s event to be decided at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 in hot and humid conditions.
Whittling down the pack by degrees with a series of surges, the 26-year-old Olympic bronze medallist emerged victorious from what turned into a head-to-head with Ikeda by uncorking a devastating 3:40 final kilometre on the last of 20 punishing circuits of Martin Luther King Jnr Boulevard.
Crossing the line seven seconds clear in 1:19:07, Yamanishi retained the title he claimed in Doha three years ago, becoming the third multiple winner of the 20km world title after Italy&rsquo;s Maurizio Damilano (1987 and 1991) and Ecuador&rsquo;s Jefferson Perez (2003, 2005 and 2007).
For Ikeda, the runner-up in 1:19:14, it was a second global silver medal in 12 months, the 24-year-old having finished second to Italy&rsquo;s Massimo Stano in the Olympic 20km race walk in Sapporo a year ago.
The battle for bronze was equally dramatic.
Third behind Yamanishi and Ikeda at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Muscat in March, Kenya&rsquo;s Samuel Gathimba looked on course for an even more meaningful bronze as he led Perseus Karlstrom into the final circuit. The 34-year-old had to settle for fourth place, however, as the big Swede produced a 3:41 last lap.
Karlstrom matched the bronze he achieved in Doha, clocking 1:19:18, with the gallant Gathimba fourth in 1:19:25 &ndash; a huge advance of Kenya&rsquo;s previous highest placing in the event, 26th.
Ecuador&rsquo;s Pan American Games champion Brian Pintado was fifth in 1:19:34 and Brazil&rsquo;s 2017 world bronze medallist Caio Bonfim sixth in 1:19.51. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jUqMmtQuALk" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 One notable absentee from the 45-strong field was Olympic champion Stano, the Italian having decided to concentrate on the 35km event on Sunday week (24).
Ireland&rsquo;s David Kenny fleetingly hit the front at the start but Yaminishi soon set out his intentions, opening up a lead of four seconds as he completed the first 1km lap in 3:55.
The 26-year-old followed up with splits of 4:00 and 4:03 but dropped back into the pack after 3.5km, with the tall, powerful figure of Karlstrom assuming the lead, closely followed by Spain&rsquo;s European champion Alvaro Martin and Peru&rsquo;s South American Championships bronze medallist Cesar Augusto Rodriguez.&nbsp;
Just two seconds separated the first 23 men as Karlstrom passed 5km in 20:11, the 1km splits having slowed to 4:06 and 4:07. Soon after, Yamanishi reappeared at the front, taking turns to push the pace with the Ecuadorian Pintado.
By this time, as 7km passed in 28:23, some of the big hitters started to drop behind. Eider Aravalo, the 2017 world champion from Colombia, peeled off the back of the pack, together with Germany&rsquo;s Olympic fifth-placer Christopher Linke.
Yamanishi was at the front at half way, with the clock at 40:33, but the defending champion whittled down the pack from 18 to 10 with the injection of a 3:51 lap, the fastest of the race.
Once again, he chose to drop back, but not for very long. Yamanishi injected his third surge on lap 13, shaking another two rivals out of the pack.
For the first time Gathimba appeared near the front, tracking Yamanishi and Karlstrom in third. After Yaminishi opened up another gap with a 3:52 split between 13km and 14km, the late-developing Kenyan took up the pursuit together with Olympic silver medallist Ikeda.
Yaminishi led the trio through 15km in 59:57, courtesy of the fastest 5km split of the race: 19.24, but just as a trio of potential medallists appeared to be forming, Karlstrom shot from a seemingly detaching fourth to the very front.
Just before the 17km mark, Yaminishi put his foot on the gas once again. This time he succeeded in dropping Karlstrom decisively. Gathimba also started to fade, leaving the race for gold down to a battle between Yaminishi and Ikeda.
With two laps to go, after the pair breezed through the 18th kilometre in 3:50, Ikeda hit the front for the first time. His teammate, however, didn&rsquo;t weaken.
At the start of the final lap, after a 3:51 circuit, Yaminishi made his decisive move, punching the air as he approached the line. His 3:40 final loop was only one second faster than the mighty effort that took Karlstrom to bronze ahead of the battling Gathimba.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics 
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center;" colspan="3">MEN'S 20km RACE WALK MEDALLISTS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Toshikazu Yamanishi 🇯🇵 JPN</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">1:19:07 SB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Koki Ikeda 🇯🇵 JPN</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">1:19:14</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Perseus Karlstrom 🇸🇪 SWE</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">1:19:18 SB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/results/men/20-kilometres-race-walk/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
&nbsp;

World Athletics Championships, Oregon 2022

Yamanishi leads a Japanese 1-2 to become only the third man in World Championships history to successfully defend the 20km race walk title

Yamanishi retains world 20km race walk title in Oregon

World Athletics has received 12 nominations for the six available seats on the&nbsp;<a href="https://worldathletics.org/about-iaaf/structure/commissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/about-iaaf/structure/commissions">World Athletics Athletes&rsquo; Commission</a>.
All athletes accredited for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 will have the right to vote in the elections, which will take place during the championships between 15-20 July in official team venues.
To be eligible for nomination, athletes must have participated in at least one of the past two editions of the World Athletics Championships, or in the most recent Olympic Games, or be a competitor at this year&rsquo;s World Athletics Championships.
The 12 nominees, in alphabetical order, are:
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b501c6a23878150e4f9afe.jpeg" alt="Andrea Paola Bonilla" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/ecuador/andrea-paola-bonilla-14859648" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/ecuador/andrea-paola-bonilla-14859648">Andrea Paola Bonilla</a>&nbsp;🇪🇨 Nominating member federation: ECU <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b5038ec63eb91c6a641cd1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b5038ec63eb91c6a641cd1.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b501dcc63eb91c6a641cc8.jpg" alt="Lisanne de Witte" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/netherlands/lisanne-de-witte-14361462" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/netherlands/lisanne-de-witte-14361462">Lisanne de Witte</a>&nbsp;🇳🇱 Nominating member federation: NED <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503fec63eb91c6a641ce0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503fec63eb91c6a641ce0.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b501f04e7defbefd494a17.jpg" alt="Lauma Griva" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/latvia/lauma-griva-14289989" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/latvia/lauma-griva-14289989">Lauma Griva</a>&nbsp;🇱🇻 Nominating member federation: LAT <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503d2c63eb91c6a641cda.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503d2c63eb91c6a641cda.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b5025e4e7defbefd494a1a.jpg" alt="Ramil Guliyev" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/turkey/ramil-guliyev-14178065" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/turkey/ramil-guliyev-14178065">Ramil Guliyev</a>&nbsp;🇹🇷 Nominating member federation: TUR <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50425c63eb91c6a641ce6.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50425c63eb91c6a641ce6.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b5026d4e7defbefd494a1d.jpg" alt="Matthew Hughes" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/canada/matthew-hughes-14174102" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/canada/matthew-hughes-14174102">Matthew Hughes</a>&nbsp;🇨🇦 Nominating member federation: CAN <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50410c63eb91c6a641ce3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50410c63eb91c6a641ce3.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62bacccbb769194f9428e9aa.jpg" alt="Ivet Lalova-Collio" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/bulgaria/ivet-lalova-collio-14268643" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/bulgaria/ivet-lalova-collio-14268643">Ivet Lalova-Collio</a>&nbsp;🇧🇬 Nominating member federation: BUL <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503bbc63eb91c6a641cd7.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503bbc63eb91c6a641cd7.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b502984e7defbefd494a23.jpeg" alt="Halimah Nakaayi" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/uganda/halimah-nakaayi-14431159" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/uganda/halimah-nakaayi-14431159">Halimah Nakaayi</a>&nbsp;🇺🇬 Nominating member federation: UGA <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50464c63eb91c6a641cec.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50464c63eb91c6a641cec.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b502aa4e7defbefd494a26.jpg" alt="Airine Palsyte" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/lithuania/airine-palsyte-14290340" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/lithuania/airine-palsyte-14290340">Airine Palsyte</a>&nbsp;🇱🇹 Nominating member federation: LTU <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50355c63eb91c6a641ccb.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50355c63eb91c6a641ccb.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b502ba4e7defbefd494a29.jpg" alt="Anna Ryzhykova" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/ukraine/anna-ryzhykova-14304336" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/ukraine/anna-ryzhykova-14304336">Anna Ryzhykova</a>&nbsp;🇺🇦 Nominating member federation: UKR <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503a4c63eb91c6a641cd4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503a4c63eb91c6a641cd4.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b502c74e7defbefd494a2c.jpg" alt="Lea Sprunger" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/switzerland/lea-sprunger-14301240" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/switzerland/lea-sprunger-14301240">Lea Sprunger</a>&nbsp;🇨🇭 Nominating member federation: SUI <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503eac63eb91c6a641cdd.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b503eac63eb91c6a641cdd.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b502db4e7defbefd494a2f.jpeg" alt="Alessia Trost" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/italy/alessia-trost-14361143" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/italy/alessia-trost-14361143">Alessia Trost</a>&nbsp;🇮🇹 Nominating member federation: ITA <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50377c63eb91c6a641cce.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b50377c63eb91c6a641cce.pdf">Candidate info form</a>
&nbsp;
<h4><img style="width: 90px; height: 90px; border-radius: 50%; margin-right: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b503034e7defbefd494a32.jpg" alt="Toshikazu Yamanishi" align="left" /></h4>
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/japan/toshikazu-yamanishi-14573292" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/japan/toshikazu-yamanishi-14573292">Toshikazu Yamanishi</a>&nbsp;🇯🇵 Nominating member federation: JPN <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b5043fc63eb91c6a641ce9.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/62b5043fc63eb91c6a641ce9.pdf">Candidate info form </a>
&nbsp;
Six athletes will be elected in Oregon to fill the spots of the following outgoing Athletes' Commission members:
Inaki Gomez (CAN) Kim Collins (SKN) Adam Kszczot (POL) Thomas Rohler (GER) Ivana Vuleta (nee Spanovic) (SRB) Benita Willis (AUS)
The official campaign period will start on 1 July, allowing candidates to promote their own campaigns.&nbsp;More information about the campaign period and election process are set out in the&nbsp;<a href="https://worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=0ab5b2dd-9f3a-49a6-b7d7-4e9c8657e00d.pdf&amp;urlslug=Athletes%27%20Commission%202022%20Elections%20Candidate%20Pack" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=0ab5b2dd-9f3a-49a6-b7d7-4e9c8657e00d.pdf&amp;urlslug=Athletes%27%20Commission%202022%20Elections%20Candidate%20Pack">Athletes' Commission 2022 Elections Candidate Pack</a>.
The importance of athletes to decision-making within World Athletics was recognised and embedded into the World Athletics structures with the governance and integrity reforms approved in December 2016.
Since 2019, the Chairperson and one other member of the Athletes&rsquo; Commission &ndash; one man and one woman &ndash; have been full voting members of the World Athletics Council. The Athletes currently holding these positions on the Council are Renaud Lavillenie (FRA, as Chair) and Dame Valerie Adams (NZL, as Deputy Chair).
&ldquo;It has been an exciting, but also a challenging few years since our last Athletes&rsquo; Commission elections in Doha in 2019. For the first time in history, two Athletes&rsquo; Commission members have held voting seats on the World Athletics Council, giving more weight to the athlete&rsquo;s voice at the leadership level of our sport,&rdquo; says World Athletics Athletes&rsquo; Commission chair Renaud Lavillenie.
&ldquo;The six athletes to be elected from this exciting group of 12 candidates will join a strong and experienced group of Commission members, and I am sure will pay a great contribution to the future of athletics, always with the athlete community&rsquo;s best interests at heart.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I wish all the candidates good luck and would like to encourage all athletes competing at the World Athletics Championships next month to use their voice and vote for those who they think will best represent them on the Athletes&rsquo; Commission.&rdquo;
World Athletics

World Athletics has received 12 nominations for the six available seats on the World Athletics Athletes’ Commission

Candidates announced for 2022 Athletes' Commission elections

It may not be among the most conventional ways to celebrate a victory, but Toshikazu Yamanishi was loving every dirty, dusty second of it.
Less than 24 hours after cruising to victory in the men&rsquo;s 20km event at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Muscat 22, the 26-year-old Japanese star was on his knees, hands buried deep into the dirt of a garden at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC), carefully setting a 50 centimetre high rose apple sapling into position. A few minutes later, the process was replicated on a ridge overlooking a protected wildlife area behind the OCEC, this time with a jujube, or red date tree.&nbsp;
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Yamanishi was one of more than a dozen athletes and officials who participated in a tree-planting on the morning after the Race Walking Team Championships, one of several initiatives to contribute to the event&rsquo;s legacy. More than 40 trees were planted over the course of the late morning event.
Nearly the entire Japanese contingent turned out for the morning activity, including Koki Ikeda, the Olympic silver medallist who finished second to Yamanishi in Muscat, Masatora Kawano, Kazuki Takahashi, Motofumi Suwa, Hayato Katsuki and Nanako Fujii as well as delegation members Daigo Asada and Takayuki Tanii, the team leader.
&ldquo;This was the first time I participated in a &lsquo;sustainability&rsquo; event and we had a good time,&rdquo; Yamanishi said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so happy to be able spend time with the people of Oman for a good cause. We wanted to do our part to help promote sustainability through the first ever race walk championships in Oman.&rdquo;
Zoe Eastwood-Bryson from Australia, a technical official for the event, also participated, planting several trees alongside athletes from the Omani delegation also participated.
Typically, the rose apple, also known as a java apple, and the jujube will produce fruit in as little as four or five years, a prospect that prompted Yamanishi to entertain the possibilities for a return visit to the Omani capital. &ldquo;If I do get the chance to return, I hope to visit my tree!&rdquo;&nbsp;
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/623da1f9ab1d4d56f05fffb2.JPG" alt="" width="100%" />
On the eve of the championships, several elite athletes competing at the event join World Athletics staff and LOC staff and volunteers at a beach clean-up to help raise awareness of plastic pollution and to support the Clean Seas campaign, which World Athletics joined in 2018, which asks participants to take the <a href="https://www.cleanseas.org/">UN Clean Seas Pledge</a>, a commitment to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics from their daily lives.
World Athletics also selected the Environment Society of Oman (ESO) as a beneficiary of the event, to assist its efforts in rolling out environmental awareness training in local schools that will contribute to the event's legacy.
A photo gallery from the tree-planting is below.
Bob Ramsak for World Athletics
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/623da0189638ca028dfe613c.JPG" alt="" width="40%" />
Motofumi Suwa
&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/623da08fab1d4d56f05fff9d.JPG" alt="" width="40%" />
Zoe Eastwood-Bryson
&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/623da0cbab1d4d56f05fffa0.JPG" alt="" width="40%" />
Nanako Fujii
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<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/623da124ab1d4d56f05fffa6.JPG" alt="" width="40%" />
Koki Ikeda
&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/623da169ab1d4d56f05fffa9.JPG" alt="" width="40%" />
Takayuki Tanii
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<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/623da199ab1d4d56f05fffac.JPG" alt="" width="40%" />
Muscat LOC members
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/623dc3ecb70ff5ac2b8e61c6.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />

Several athletes helped celebrate their participation at the Race Walking Team Championships by participating in a tree-planting.

Athletes join tree-planting event to contribute to Race Walking Team Championships environmental legacy in Oman

Japan dominated the men's 20km event at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Muscat 22&nbsp;yet again, only this time it was Toshikazu Yamanishi taking gold.
The world champion saw off teammate and defending World Race Walking Team Championships winner Koki Ikeda shortly before 11km with a decisive move up the hill on a testing course on Saturday (5), clocking&nbsp;1:22:52. The eventual silver medallist claimed gold in Taicang in 2018, but was second best in every sense this time, recording&nbsp;1:23:29.
Even so, the pair with impressive PBs well under 1:18:00 stamped their authority very early. Behind them, an impressive battle for third was a real race for more than half the distance.
A chasing group of six then fell apart at 14km, leaving Australian Declan Tingay and Kenya's Samuel Gathimba chasing bronze.
Tingay sensed Ikeda was struggling and upped his effort. Unfortunately for the man who was 17th at the Olympics and then scored a PB of 1:20:44 in February, he also caught the judges&rsquo; attention. He was to serve a two-minute penalty less than 100m from the finish, but had already been passed by Gathimba, who claimed Kenya&rsquo;s first ever medal at these championships in 1:23:52.
The 34-year-old known as &lsquo;Speedy&rsquo; was the epitome of athletics joy as he raised his arms to heaven and then beat them in excitement on the tarmac having sunk to his knees in gratitude. Kenya has long been a giant at distance running. Maybe, after this worthy bronze, they will see race walking as another route to success. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/622376ce951aac81845d5361.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Behind the leading three, Brian Pintado claimed fourth for Ecuador, which was to prove crucial in the team event. By the final reckoning, his country had pipped Japan by just a single point, with China in third.
Spain&rsquo;s Diego Garcia finished fifth and Mexico's Saul Mena was sixth.
Earlier, Alberto Amezcua went to the front straight away, with teammate Garcia shadowing and five others notching a nippy first kilometre in 4:08. The leaders then concertinaed with a big pack coming back up the hill and reached 2km in 8:34. It emphasised the see-saw nature of flying down a hill, and having to climb back up it.
Australia&rsquo;s Kyle Swan decided if there was to be hare it might as well be him, and moved ahead to record 12:47 at 3km - comfortable, by the standards of most of the field. The Australian with a PB of 1:21:39 from February was quickly caught by Yamanishi as they hit 4km in 17:08.&nbsp;
The Japanese then forged a 20-metre gap, not least because the fifth kilometre was the fastest so far&nbsp;- 4:07. Eider Arevalo was the only athlete to give chase from a large group of 34 separated by a handful of seconds. But the Colombian 2017 world champion soon gave up the idea of walking between a rock and a hard place and re-joined the group almost as soon as he left it.
As he did, Ikeda decided he was up for chasing his compatriot and was only four seconds behind at 8km in 33:48.&nbsp; 
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 The chasers were reduced to six that included Pintado, India's Sandeep Kumar, Tingay and Gathimba clearly having good races, but a 4:02 ninth kilometre saw the land of the rising sun headed for gold and silver even before halfway. That mark was clocked at 41:59, which to the Japanese was ambling, but still 27 seconds in front of the half dozen straining to get back in touch.
Yamanishi had a second go to get away approaching 11km, and opened a five-second lead over Ikeda. It was hardly a surprise considering that last 1000m was the first under four minutes in 3:57.&nbsp;
The six vying for bronze were 43 seconds in arrears at 12km, but that group was also coming apart at the seams.
Two kilometres later, Tingay and Garcia had inched ahead to leave Pintado, Gathimba and Kumar seemingly walking solo for the minor places. But the Spaniard couldn't hold on, and at 16km, Tingay had a clear view of a tiring Ikeda and set off to catch him followed by Gathimba, and clearly sensing his chance.&nbsp;
By contrast, Yamanishi never looked as if he was working.
His immaculate style never wavered for a stride, and when he threw away his cap at the bell, there was never a chance he would throw away his return to glory.
Sorely disappointed by just a bronze on home soil at the Olympics, there was no-one going to take away his first place this time.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics 
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid; height: 110px;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center; height: 22px;" colspan="3">LEADING RESULTS</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center; height: 22px;">1</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968; height: 22px;">Toshikazu Yamanishi 🇯🇵 JPN</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968; height: 22px;">1:22:52 SB</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center; height: 22px;">2</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9; height: 22px;">Koki Ikeda 🇯🇵 JPN</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9; height: 22px;">1:23:29 SB</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center; height: 22px;">3</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e; height: 22px;">Samuel Gathimba 🇰🇪 KEN</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e; height: 22px;">1:23:52 SB</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left; height: 22px;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-race-walking-team-championshi/muscat22/results/men/20-kilometres-race-walk/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships

World champion holds off teammate Koki Ikeda

Yamanishi retains 20km title for Japan in Muscat

The sun shone for Toshikazu Yamanishi at the 104th Japanese Championships in Kobe. The world champion lived up to his gold coloured No 1 race number to take the 20km race by the scruff of the neck just after 15km, and ring it dry long before the end.
Yamanishi&rsquo;s second successive win was even more comfortable than last year&rsquo;s emphatic victory.
His winning time of 1:17:20 was better by 16 seconds than 2020, and six seconds inside the championship record. It&rsquo;s also the sixth-fastest performance in history.
After he broke the tape, he was giving an interview before second-place finisher Eiki Takahashi came into view 44 seconds later.
All the same, the latter has finished in the top three since 2014, and won five times before Yamanishi killed the run last year.
A tired Koki Ikeda finished third, and as he sprawled on the tarmac an official still put a lanyard with &lsquo;number three&rsquo; around his neck.
In contrast, the winner looked like he had been out for the Sunday papers before taking a bow and strolling off into the sunshine.
Yamanishi celebrated his 25th birthday last Monday as well as 100 straight weeks at the top of world rankings for the 20km race walk.
If proof were needed difficult training conditions over the past year has had little effect on Japanese race walking, this was it.
All three underlined their Olympic selection at the distance, and right from the gun the main places were quickly sorted.
A group of six immediately distanced themselves from a huge field in perfect racing conditions. Indeed, many, including Yamanishi, wore sunglasses in the pleasant 13 degrees.
The only breeze after a mere 6km was the lead group already lapping back markers &ndash; and even the lapped weren&rsquo;t travelling slowly.
By that time, Tomohiro Noda and Hiroto Jusho were feeling the effects of a rash start, and quickly became uncoupled from the express at the front.
At 5km, reached in 19:22, things were heating up on all fronts. A surprise casualty 3km later was Yuta Koga, who has a best of 1:18:42, set last year in Nomi. &nbsp;Unable to keep up the relentless pace, he came off the back, and it was down to three.
At halfway, 38:38, the leading trio was forced to go much wider than desired in order to lap large spread groups who themselves were well under 1:30:00 pace.
How many extra metres walked by the trio is up for debate, but hugging the inside of the one-kilometre course on Rokko Island at the southern end of Kobe was out of the question.
There was even the slightly bizarre sight of lapped race walker Kazuhiro Tateiwa, best 1:23:42, latching on to the leaders for an entire circuit at 14km. Tateiwa was clearly living outside his comfort zone, but even 1000m with this illustrious group was a brave move. He went as quickly as he came after his lap in the limelight, and then slowly after 15km (58:00) Yamanishi put the hammer down.
As he checked his watch with four laps to go, he glanced back to see a gap of about 15m to Ikeda and Takahashi, and by 17km, 15 metres had become 15 seconds, with the gap growing by the stride.
With two laps left, the world champion had all but doubled a lead over his immediate chasers. There was a drop and shake of the arms on the 18th lap, but that was the only hint Yamanishi was feeling the pace.
As he sprinted the home straight, it was clear Yusuke Suzuki&rsquo;s 1:16:36 world record was safe, but the intriguing prospect of closer competition and fewer human obstacles suggests that six-year-old record is far from safe.
In fact, the last few metres demanded a duck to the right of the penalty lane and into the finish rather than a straight drive to the line.
Behind the places, Satoshi Maruo came home a delighted fourth, followed by Isamu Fujisawa in fifth place.
It wasn&rsquo;t the biggest surprise when Kumiko Okada had to accept second best to Nanako Fujii in the women&rsquo;s 20km.
The latter had a breakthrough win in Nomi last year, and was seventh at the World Championships in Doha.
Both have been selected for the Olympics, and only Masumi Fuchise could go with the leading pair once they shook off a small group at 3km.
Even Fuchise drifted shortly after at 5km (22:46) and by half way was more than a minute behind Okada and Fujii.
The former holds the national record set in La Coruna in 2019, 1:27:41, and was given the gold-coloured number worn by last year&rsquo;s winner. But Fujii, a distant minute plus in that La Coruna race, had other ideas about the result of this one.
Both were locked at 15km, reached in 1:08:30, with Fuchise now an entire straight in arrears before the eventual winner wound up the pace just after the drinks station.
That sip of refreshment was all she needed to open up an immediate gap and stretch it all the way to the end.
The 21-year-old even had the presence of mind to adjust her hair for the cameras and then greeted the distant Okada more than a minute behind, while both had left the course before lone third place Fuchise crossed more than five minutes later.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics
<h3>Leading results</h3>
Men 1 Toshikazu Yamanishi 1:17:20 2 Eiki Takahashi 1:18:04 3 Koki Ikeda 1:18:45 4 Satoshi Maruo 1:20:02 5 Isamu Fujisawa 1:20:29 6 Subaru Ishida 1:20:39 7 Tomohiro Noda 1:20:57 8 Hiroto Jusho 1:21:53
Women 1 Nanako Fujii 1:30:45 2 Kumiko Okada 1:31:51 3 Masumi Fuchise 1:36:49 4 Nami Kumagai 1:38:11 5 Haruko Nakagawa 1:38:50 6 Mao Tatsumi 1:39:12 7 Chisa Todokoro 1:39:54 8 Maika Yagi 1:40:23

The sun shone for Toshikazu Yamanishi at the 104th Japanese Championships in Kobe. 

Yamanishi cruises to 1:17:20 victory at Japanese 20km Race Walking Championships

When he&rsquo;s got a spare minute, Toshikazu Yamanishi likes to read Agatha Christie novels.
There will be no mystery if the bespectacled world champion adds Olympic gold to his Doha triumph.
The Japanese race walker has been in the vanguard of top race walkers since he won the 2013 world U18 title. But go back a decade, and Japan was race walking&rsquo;s support cast.
There was Yusuke Suzuki, long before his 20km world record and 50km world title, charging off at the front against stellar fields only to be reeled in when it mattered.
Now, in Olympic year, Suzuki and teammates are ready to take centre stage, not just at the beginning, but also at the middle and the end in their tilt for glory.
Whether anyone will be allowed to see Yamansihi and co triumph on home soil is still a matter of debate. But one way or the other, nothing is going to get in the way of the race walker who turns 25 today (15 February).
&ldquo;It would be great to have spectators,&rdquo; Yamanishi said. &ldquo;There are sometimes big crowds in Japan, sometimes not. Domestic attention differs greatly.
&ldquo;But in the Olympics, it&rsquo;s a chance to be seen and interested in by many people in Japan. If spectators are not allowed it will be a shame of course, but whether spectators are permitted or not, what I do, I hope, is my best performance.&rdquo;
If he performs anywhere near his &lsquo;best&rsquo;, Yamanishi will stand a great chance of taking gold. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Carousel2/a211fc7c-1519-4620-8a25-fbe66819d1de.jpg?cachebuster=bddff0ee-4ca0-412d-8e9e-a9049de67815" alt="" width="950" height="570" /> Toshikazu Yamanishi en route to the Japanese 20km race walking title in Kobe (&copy; Getty Images)
&nbsp;
Later this week, the 104th Japanese 20km Race Walk Championships will take place in Kobe with a strictly domestic race.
Rewind 12 months and the birthday boy became the first race walker to dip under 1:18:00 four times when he broke the Kobe tape in 1:17:36, denying Eiki Takahashi a sixth straight win. The first four men finished inside 1:20:00, and 55 got under 1:30:00.
Yamanishi, who has led the world 20km race walk rankings for 98 weeks, has a theory why Japan has come to the fore as a race walking nation. Athletes in other disciplines will nod knowingly at his reasons.
&ldquo;Firstly, we have well-developed coaching systems where detail and attention are important,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Secondly, there are many rivals. If you are always in tough competition in Japan where nobody gives an inch in all races, you always have to be at your best. To get to that level, training under precise coaching to improve skills and performances is all important.&rdquo;
As it happens, Yamanishi&rsquo;s coach, Takayuki Uchida, only meets up with his charge twice a month on average. In between, the race walker sends him training reports that include films of his workouts.
&ldquo;We meet mostly in training camps, but otherwise it&rsquo;s about sending each other information and using that to improve,&rdquo; Yamanishi added. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e74uZHbbmGQ" width="100%" height="450" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 So far, advice about wearing glasses in training or even during races has been absent.
At the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019, all race walkers drenched themselves from head to foot throughout as they fought the heat and humidity even in the dead of night. It looked as if Yamanishi needed a pair of mini windscreen wipers on his specs, something akin to the eccentric pair worn by rock star Elton John back in the day. The race walker laughed off the idea.
&ldquo;Actually, it doesn&rsquo;t bother me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And no, I&rsquo;ve never given contact lenses a thought. Why should I? I don&rsquo;t think twice about the glasses.&rdquo;
On the theme of water, Yamanishi was like a duck to same soon after watching his first event.
A friend was race walking, and 15-year-old Yamanishi was curious about this strange event and decided to give it a go. Within three years Yamanishi had clocked 41:53.80 for 10,000m to win the world U18 title in Donetsk. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Carousel2/4fe510e3-c777-4785-8334-07df51b95c37.jpg?cachebuster=6e3da47d-ff10-4746-9791-81724dfe4a49" alt="" width="1000" height="600" /> Toshikazu Yamanishi wins the world U18 title in Donetsk (&copy; Getty Images)
&nbsp;
Since then, apart from Doha, he has won the Asian Championships in Nomi City in 2019 where he clocked a personal best of 1:17:15, making him the fourth-fastest man in history for the distance.
Remarkably, it&rsquo;s still shy of Suzuki&rsquo;s superlative 1:16:36 world record set on the same course four years earlier.
What all top Japanese race walkers have is outstanding leg speed.
A phalanx at the front in races like Kobe and Nomi is just a blur of bees' wings, and all moving in excellent style.
It&rsquo;s another testament to coaching methods, where the best can cover a lap of the track in 1:20.
At the Juntendo Meeting at Inzai in November, arch-rival Takahashi did just that in a 10,000m race for 37:25.21 that shattered the world best.
One wondered whether Yamanishi can or has bettered a 1:20 circuit?
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, I haven&rsquo;t tried it for a while, but I&rsquo;ve done 1:20 in a race,&rdquo; he said.
The reason why the champion and athletics tracks have been strangers over the past year is down to Covid-19. Rare was the reason that allowed race walkers on a track, even if you&rsquo;re a man with an Olympic title in sight. Indeed, there were occasions over the past 12 months when Yamanishi was restricted to weights and other indoor exercises. It meant the 2020 bulk of his build-up had to be on the road.
&ldquo;Stadiums were closed, so we couldn't practice on the track&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;It meant being restricted to road training and mobility training indoors.&rdquo;
The man from Kyoto understands he&rsquo;s an Olympic favourite for all that. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Original/3a0f6a7f-2a10-453e-90ba-fb23a8e432c4.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" /> Wang Kaihua, Koki Ikeda and Toshikazu Yamanishi in action at the World Race Walking Team Championships Taicang 2018 (&copy; Getty Images)
&nbsp;
Apart from teammates Takahashi, 2018 World Race Walking Team Championships winner Koki Ikeda and Yuta Koga, the other race walker in that Inzai burn-up to sprint a 1:20 lap, Yamanishi says there are others waiting to cause an upset.
&ldquo;Those with good chances? Vasiliy Mizinov was second in Doha. Perseus Karlstorm was third, and I respect and admire Eider Arevalo,&rdquo; he said.
The latter was world champion in 2017 when he charged through on The Mall in London to break the tape.
Swede Karlstrom somehow weaved his way past the pandemic last year to race and win frequently all over the world. And no one should write off Mizinov, world ranked third, who boasts a PB of 1:18:32.
Even so, Team Yamanishi knows how to properly prepare and triumph.
His winning time in Doha, 1:26:34, might have translated to about two kilometres slower than his best, but it&rsquo;s crossing the line first that counts.
Japan awaits with bated breath &ndash; not only for an Olympic green light, but on its gold medal favourites.
Meanwhile, Yamanishi will train hard, race when he can, and chill out with a good book.
&ldquo;I spend my spare time reading,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I especially like mystery and Agatha Christie. It helps me to relax&rdquo;.
Murder is pushing it too far, but this Orient express intends to make competitors suffer in Sapporo.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics

When he’s got a spare minute, Toshikazu Yamanishi likes to read Agatha Christie novels. There will be no mystery if the bespectacled world champion adds Olympic gold to his Doha triumph.

Meticulous planning and strong domestic opposition the key to Yamanishi’s success

Kenya&rsquo;s world 5000m finalist Nicolas Kimeli won the men&rsquo;s 10,000m at the Gouden Spike meeting in Leiden, clocking a world-leading PB of 26:58.97.
The 21-year-old, contesting his first 10,000m race in three years, ran alongside compatriot Solomon Kiplimo Boit during the early stages, passing through 3000m just inside 8:12. Kimeli broke away from Boit just a couple of laps later and set off in pursuit of a sub-27-minute time.
Kimeli&rsquo;s lead grew with each lap, while Boit continued running in no-man&rsquo;s land. Further behind, Dutch runner Mike Foppen, making his debut over 10,000m, gradually detached himself from the main chase pack.
Kimeli forged on and started to sprint on the final lap when he realised a sub-27-minute performance was a possibility. He crossed the line in 26:58.97 to smash the meeting record by almost half a minute.
Boit finished second in 27:41.10, while Foppen placed third in 27:59.10. It was Foppen&rsquo;s eighth PB of the year, having set two at 1500m, one at 2000m, two at 3000m, plus national records for 5000m and 5km.
In fourth, Swedish teenager Emil Millan de la Oliva clocked a national U20 record of 28:23.21, just one second shy of the European U20 record of 28:22.48 set by Italy's Christian Leuprecht back in 1990.
As is tradition at this meeting, a golden spike trophy is presented to the top performer of the night. Unsurprisingly, Kimeli scooped that accolade.
Elsewhere in Leiden, Menno Vloon won the pole vault with 5.76m, the second-best clearance of his career after his 5.85m national record in 2017.
<h3>Warholm and Ingebrigtsen dominant at Norwegian Championships</h3>
Some of the country&rsquo;s biggest stars turned out in Bergen for the Norwegian Championships, which concluded on Sunday (20).
Just three days after winning in Rome with a meeting record of 47.07, two-time world champion Karsten Warholm won the 400m hurdles in 48.23, finishing more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen completed a middle-distance double, taking the 1500m title in 3:33.93 on Saturday &ndash; winning by 13 seconds &ndash; and then winning the 800m in 1:48.72 on Sunday.
A week after setting a world U18 heptathlon best of 6301, 17-year-old Henriette J&aelig;ger won the 400m in 52.90 and the 200m in 23.60 (-2.0m/s). She was also third in the long jump (6.04m).
Elsewhere, Amalie Iuel won the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles in 55.63 and Zerei Kbrom Mezngi took the men&rsquo;s 10,000m title in 28:04.29.
<h3>Yamanishi impresses in Kumagaya</h3>
World champion Toshikazu Yamanishi stepped down in distance at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships in Kumagaya and won the 5000m race walk in 18:34.88, the fastest ever clocking by an Asian race walker.
Yamanishi had Eiki Takahashi, Tomohiro Noda and Satoshi Maruo for company in the early stages, but he gradually dropped them one by one before going on to win by almost 17 seconds. Takahashi finished second in 18:51.25.
Yamanishi&rsquo;s winning time is four seconds faster than the Asian record set by Yusuke Suzuki back in 2015, just three months after he set a world record over 20km. 
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Toshikazu Yamanishi on his way to winning the 5000m race walk at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships</div>
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In a high-quality men&rsquo;s 10,000m race, 2015 world U18 champion Richard Kimunyan emerged the winner in 27:01.42, finishing just one second ahead of Benard Koech (27:02.39) with Bedan Karoki a close third (27:02.80). Kimunyan&rsquo;s time was a world lead but lasted just eight hours at the top of the world list before it was bettered in Leiden.
The women's 5000m was similarly speedy, won by Kenya's Rebecca Mwangi in 14:55.32. National half marathon record-holder Hitomi Niiya was a close second in 14:55.83, while Ririka Hironaka placed third in 14:59.37. Niiya and Hironaka moved to second and third respectively on the Japanese all-time list.
On the infield, Tomohiro Shinno produced a lifetime best of 2.31m to win the men's high jump title, moving to fourth on the Japanese all-time list in the process. National record-holder Haruka Kitaguchi threw a season&rsquo;s best of 63.45m to win the women&rsquo;s javelin.

Kenya’s world 5000m finalist Nicolas Kimeli won the men’s 10,000m at the Gouden Spike meeting in Leiden, clocking a world-leading PB of 26:58.97.

Kimeli clocks 10,000m world lead in Leiden, Warholm and Ingebrigtsen victorious in Bergen

It was an island of dreams for Toshikazu Yamanishi at the 103rd Japanese National 20km Championships as he roared home to gold and a place in the Japanese Olympic team.
The world champion triumphed ahead of a stellar field to celebrate his 24th birthday the day before - and by a distance.
Previous editions in Kobe had been mostly cagey affairs, usually won by a grudging inch or two. But on a new 1km loop around Rokko Island at the southern end of the city, walkers spread out and saw times dip fractionally on previous years.
It probably owed a fair bit to the weather.
A slate grey rain demanded heavy coats and umbrellas on the sidelines. Many spectators wore medical masks, presumably to ward off the threat of Coronavirus.
&lsquo;Fresh&rsquo; said the forecast - decidedly chilly was nearer the truth. Walkers shivered on the start line, and many wore arm warmers.
However, the pace was white hot from the gun, incidentally kept inside a plastic bag by the starter until the last second.
Defending champion Eiki Takahashi, Koki Ikeda, Yamanishi, Isamu Fujisawa, Hirooki Arai, Tomohiro Noda and top Swede Perseus Karlstrom quickly established themselves at the front of the 84-strong field, and ticked off 5km in 19:18.
They were lapping the back markers very soon, and by lap nine, the pack was halved to just three.
Yamanishi, Takahashi and Ikeda had clearly decided to take the race by the scruff of the neck.&nbsp;
Halfway saw 38:50 on the course clock, with Karlstom already 17 seconds down, desperately trying to get on the coat-tails of Noda and Ikeda.&nbsp;
On Lap 12 Yamanishi shook off his two shadows in an almighty rush.
In fact, his leg speed over the next circuits was phenomenal.
The hot favourite for the Olympic title in Tokyo appeared a blur through the mist and rain. But Takahashi with a slightly longer stride refused to panic.
He halved a 20m lead over the next 2km, and closed the gap entirely by three-quarter distance reached in 58:10.
However, the bespectacled Yamanishi wasn&rsquo;t finished.
A lap later, and with a second wind, he stretched another lead over Takahashi to around 15 metres even though he had to lap back markers on the outside - and this time the gap proved decisive.
The leader had the luxury of looking round at every 500m turn over the last 3km to see all opposition disappearing in his wake as he splashed though a sizeable puddle at the end of each lap.
He took the tape just as he did in Doha at the World Championships, this time in 1:17:36 but in very contrasting conditions.
Yamanishi has lead World Athletics rankings for an incredible 47 weeks, and despite a lack of opposition and the cold, was only marginally outside his personal best, 1:17:15, set in the Asian Championships at Nomi last year.
He&rsquo;s also the only walker to have gone under 1:18:00 on four occasions.
Behind him, Ikeda moved through the gears in the closing stages to come home a surprise second.
Karlstrom paid the price for a fierce early pace to finish overall third, nearly two minutes down on the winner - and a long way outside his PB, 1:18:07.
No doubt the Doha bronze medallist and 2019 Race Walking Challenge winner will reflect and adjust come the Olympics.
Poor Takahashi looked forlorn as he crossed for fourth, and third in the Japanese Championships. There was to be no sixth win in a row in a city where he has been unassailable.&nbsp;
<h3>Okada takes women&rsquo;s 10km crown</h3>
In the women's 10kms, Kumiko Okada moved up from overall second in 2019 to take the title, and unlike the men&rsquo;s race where the result was in doubt until 16km, the 28-year-old reigned supreme from the start.
Walking smoothly and wearing glasses like the men&rsquo;s champion, Okada did justice to the gold number handed to the reigning champion.
She was exactly a minute ahead at halfway of the only two who might passably be called chasers, which Okada clocked in 44:33.
A distance behind, Kaori Kawazoe and Nadia Gonzalez were battling of the minor medals, but by 15kms the Mexican, walking as a guest, had to give way and slipped back through the field.
Okada was an encouraging sixth in Doha, and boasts a 1:27:41 national record set at La Coruna last year.
She crossed the line in 1:29:56, the only woman under 90 minutes, and was already giving interviews by the time Kawazoe battled the last 500m for a deserved second to finish in 1:33:15.
Behind her, it was anything but a grey day for Nami Hayashi.
The Japanese looked totally spent with head tilted and mouth open as she collapsed over the line, but equally shattered was her 1:38:55 PB, and by more than three minutes to take bronze just ahead of Serena Sonoda in fourth.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics

It was an island of dreams for Toshikazu Yamanishi at the 103rd Japanese National 20km Championships as he roared home to gold and a place in the Japanese Olympic team.

Yamanishi cruises to national 20km title in Kobe, secures Olympic team spot

Japan completed a glorious men&rsquo;s race walking double at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 courtesy of a commanding performance by world leader Toshikazu Yamanishi.
The bespectacled 23-year-old seized control of the race between 7-8km and never relinquished his advantage as he tamed the hot and humid conditions to strike gold in 1:26:34.
Vasily Mizinov, the authorised neutral athlete, stormed home with a final 5km split of 20:53 to grab silver. Perseus Karlstrom, who mounted a strong challenge in the third quarter of the race to close Yamanishi, earned Sweden its first men's race walking medal at a World Championships by taking bronze in 1:27:00.
The 52-man field set out on Friday (at 11.30pm) on the Corniche, covering 20 one-kilometre loops in temperatures of 32C and 73% humidity.
Sensibly the field adopted a cautious approach, covering the first 5km in 22:25 led by Australia&rsquo;s Olympic bronze medallist Dane Bird-Smith.
The first significant moves were made by Great Britain&rsquo;s 2016 world U20 10,000m race walk champion Callum Wilkinson and China&rsquo;s Asian Games champion Wang Kaihua, who opened up a handy gap on the field just beyond quarter distance.
Wang had opened up a 40-metre advantage but Yamanishi, who earlier this year recorded the fourth fastest time in history with a 1:17:15 clocking to land the Asian title, was first to respond to the Chinese athlete&rsquo;s thrust.
The Japanese race walker, who could be one of the star names at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, put together back-to-back 4:15 kilometre splits to glide past Wang and by 9km held a 13-second lead on a group containing the Chinese race walker, Karlstrom, Italian record-holder Massimo Stano and Koki Ikeda of Japan, the 2018 IAAF World Racing Walking Team Championships gold medallist.
Half distance was reached in 46:06 by Yamanishi &ndash; who was showing no sign of distress &ndash; some 17 seconds clear of the chasing pack, which now also included Turkey&rsquo;s Salih Korkmaz, the European U23 silver medallist.
By 12km Yamanishi&rsquo;s advantage had been trimmed to 12 seconds, although Stano&rsquo;s bid for a medal was over as he was forced to serve two minutes in the pitlane following three red cards.
The Japanese athlete marched relentlessly on and by 15km (1:05:28) the lead was back up to 15 seconds. Behind, Karlstrom put the hammer down following a 4:07 one kilometre split to open up a clear 12-second advantage on Korkmuz, who now held third.
The 29-year-old Swede briefly offered hope he could bridge the gap on the long-time leader and at 16km the advantage was reduced to 13 seconds.
However, Karlstrom had over-exerted himself in pursuit of gold and by the 18km checkpoint &ndash; reached in 1:18:03 by the Japanese athlete &ndash; his lead was now 25 seconds and the Swede had a flying Mizinov just nine seconds adrift.
By 19km the authorised neutral athlete had moved into second and the medal order &ndash; barring any late calls by the race walking judges &ndash; was determined.
In splendid isolation and just a few minutes before 1am local time he completed the 20km in 1:26:34. It was the first time since Spain's double triumph in 1993 that one nation had snared both men&rsquo;s race walking titles at a World Championships.
Mizinov was rewarded with silver in 1:26:49 with Karlstrom (1:27:00) claiming Sweden&rsquo;s first race walking medal since Madelin Svensson grabbed the women&rsquo;s 10km silver in 1991.
Yamanishi was delighted to claim a second race walking gold for Japan in Doha and even consulted the 50km winner Yusuke Suzuki in preparation of the challenge ahead.
&ldquo;It was good and helpful for me to receive some advice from Suzuki," he said. "I used a towel around my neck, and it made the race a bit easier. When I started to speed up after 7km I expected athletes to follow me. I was surprised and lucky nobody did. I wanted to walk faster in the final 3km but it was impossible. I hope this medal will give me a lot more confidence for Tokyo.&rdquo;
Behind the podium finishers, Germany&rsquo;s Christopher Linke, who was ninth at halfway, finished strongly to place fourth in 1:27:19. Korkmaz produced a best ever finish for Turkey at a World Championships race walk in fifth (1:27:35) with Great Britain&rsquo;s Tom Bosworth achieving the same feat for his country in placing seventh (1:29:34). Sandwiched between the pair was the second Japanese race walker, Ikeda, in 1:29:02.
Of the 52 starters, a total of 40 men completed the race. Seven competitors did not finish and five race walkers were disqualified.
Steve Landells for the IAAF

Japan completed a glorious men’s race walking double at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 courtesy of a commanding performance by world leader Toshikazu Yamanishi.

Report: men's 20km race walk - IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019

It was cold, it rained, and the winner at the 20km Asian Race Walking Championships wore arm gloves to ward off the elements - but Toshikazu Yamanishi (20km race walk world ranking: 3) lived up to star billing when he fired off the fastest time in the year at this, the third leg of the 2019 IAAF Race Walking Challenge.
His 1:17:15 finish also netted the Japanese a personal best by 26 seconds in a race where the first three all went under a stunning 1:17:30.
The bespectacled 23-year-old wore number one on his vest. And on the 2km loop in Nomi that borders the Neagari baseball field, he went for a home run right from the off.
Whether it was to warm up after shivering on the start line in a mere three degrees, or just because he was feeling good, Yamanishi reached 5km in 19:18.
Trailing in his wake by a few seconds were team-mates Masatora Kawano (20km race walk world ranking: 16), and number one in the IAAF World Rankings, Koki Ikeda.
Five in total were soon joined at the hip to reach halfway in 38:27 - 19:09 for the split - but slowed ever so slightly when they passed 15kms in 15km, 58:00 on the nose for a 19:33 5km segment.
But it was as if Yamanishi was drawing breath for a final charge.
Over the last two kilometres he gradually stretched the elastic to put nine seconds between himself and Kawano, who nevertheless finished second in 1:17:24.
For him, this too was a new massive personal best. His previous was a distant 1:19:52 from 2018.
Ikeda was a step behind for 1:17:25. And yet again, another top Japanese athlete rewrote his personal record that had stood for a mere month when he notched 1:18:01 in the Japanese National Championships.
It did his pole position in the rankings no harm, and that second place in Kobe in February was in itself a 1:12 PB.
Yet again, three Japanese walkers walked breathtaking times to underline their country&rsquo;s huge strength in depth.
Not far behind in fourth was world record holder Yusuke Suzuki in 1:17:47 - his fastest for three years, and Isamu Fujisawa (20km race walk world ranking: 12) - 1:17:52 and a further place back.
Factor in the absent Eiki Takahashi (20km race walk world ranking: 13), who won in Kobe for the fifth time in a row, along with three or four others treading on their heels, and Japan are going to take some stopping when it comes to Olympic glory on home soil next year.
This 14th edition of the Asian Championships featured a number of race categories.
So, actual second and third places in the Championships went to Georgy Sheiko (20km race walk world ranking: 68) from Kazakstan in 1:20:21 and Korea&rsquo;s Byeongkwang Choe (20km race walk world ranking: 80) for 1:20:40.
It seemed the cold freshened up walkers throughout the field, because Sheiko only managed 1:21:57 at Nomi 12 months ago. His effort this time was another personal milestone improving a 1:20:47 PB on the same course two years ago.
In what was billed as the Asian Open Championships, 19-year-old Zhang Jun won in 1:20:17 that was also good for sixth overall.
Born in China, but made in Italy, where he is coached by the legendary Sandro Damilano, and augmented by Wang Yinhang, Zhang reeled off splits of 20:10, 20:07, 20:02, and a final 19:58 in metronomic fashion to add his name to China&rsquo;s huge list of possibles for the IAAF World Championships in Doha, later this year.
Yet again, this category winner recorded a significant PB - 2:35 - on his previous mark from 2018.
Second in the open race was three-time winner in the actual championships, Hyunsub Kim (20km race walk world ranking: 33) from Korea in 1:21:01. Third went to India&rsquo;s Devender Singh in 1:21:25.
<h3>Ma dominates women's contest</h3>
Damilano had a second reason to celebrate when another of his proteges, women&rsquo;s favourite Ma Zhenxia, marched imperiously to a comfortable victory, both in the Championships and overall.
&nbsp;
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Ma Zhenxia wins the 10,000m race walk at the IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016</div>
&nbsp;
Ma has not long returned from Italy, and on a day of personal bests, the 20-year-old Chinese produced another to record 1:28:28 - exactly a minute better than her existing mark.
She led from start to finish with splits of 22:09, 21:45, 21:57, before slowing to 22:37, not that it mattered.
Ma had just over a minute on Australian Katie Hayward in all categories, and four minutes over official Asian Championships second place Kaori Kawazoe (20km race walk world ranking: 23) from Japan who finished in 1:32:48.
For the first time, tiny Hong Kong stood on the podium courtesy of Siu Nga Ching (20km race walk world ranking: 45) who recorded 1:34:17 for third.
Hayward, just 18, demonstrated a cool head on young shoulders to log splits of 22:50, 22:29, 22:07, and 22:05 for 1:29:31, and beat Aussie team-mate and Commonwealth champion Jemima Montag (20km race walk world ranking: 13) for the second time in a month - and in a time only six seconds slower than her debut at the first Race Walking Challenge at Adelaide in February.
Paul Warburton for the IAAF

It was cold, it rained, and the winner at the 20km Asian Race Walking Championships wore arm gloves to ward off the elements - but Toshikazu Yamanishi (20km race walk world ranking: 3) lived up to star billing when he fired off the fastest time in the year at this, the third leg of the 2019 IAAF Race Walking Challenge.