It’s the longest race on the World Championships programme. It’s also the one that people generally tend to know least about, but recent history suggests a Russian man should win.

The 11th edition of the annual IAAF Race Walking Challenge takes centre stage again after an exciting 2012 with the north Mexican city of Chihuahua and Hobart, Australia hosting the first two of the 14-leg series this weekend.

Statisticians Mirko Jalava (FIN) and A. Lennart Julin (SWE) continue their ‘End of Season’ event category reviews, which cover all Athletics disciplines, highlighting the best performances which have taken place across our sport in 2012, with ROAD RUNNING AND RACE WALKS.

The winner of the men’s Olympic 50km race walk likes a good horror story – and Sergey Kirdyapkin has endured a few in his time as a top walker.

The men’s winner of the 50km insisted he walked two races in the same day.