Wang Kaihua (born 16 February 1994) is a Chinese male racewalking athlete. He has represented his country at the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships in 2016, where he helped China to the team gold, and at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics, where he finished in seventh place.
Born in Lanzhou, he took part in racewalking competitions as a youth and participated at the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics. He is coached by Italian Sandro Damilano. [1] Moving into the senior ranks, he began to establish himself at the Taicang Race Walking Challenge, placing second to Chen Ding. [2] Wang was ranked the number one in the world over the 20 kilometres race walk distance in the 2017 season, having set a personal best of 1:17:54 hours to win at the Chinese National Grand Prix. [3] This moved him into the top five all time fastest Chinese at the event. [4]
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | World Youth Championships | Lille, France | 6th | 10,000 m walk | |
2016 | World Race Walking Team Championships | Rome, Italy | 13th | 20 km walk | 1:21:12 |
1st | 20 km walk | 16 pts | |||
2017 | World Championships | London, United Kingdom | 7th | 20 km walk | 1:19:30 |
2018 | Asian Games | Jakarta, Indonesia | 1st | 20 km walk | 1:22:04 |
2023 | Asian Championships | Bangkok, Thailand | 2nd | 20 km walk | 1:25:29 |
Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully assess that this is maintained throughout the race. Typically held on either roads or running tracks, common distances range from 3,000 metres (1.9 mi) up to 100 kilometres (62.1 mi).
The World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships is a racewalking event organised by World Athletics. It has been held since 1961, and generally on a biennial basis. The first women's edition of the event happened in 1979. It was formerly known as the Lugano Cup after the city that hosted the first event, then became the IAAF World Race Walking Cup until 2016 and then IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships until 2018. In 2004, a junior division was added for athletes between 16 and 20. Since 2008 it has been a constituent meeting of the World Athletics Challenge – Race Walking.
The World Athletics Race Walking Tour is a racewalking series organised by World Athletics. Athletes accumulate points in specific race walk meetings during the season. Performances in 10 kilometres race walk, 20 kilometres race walk and 50 kilometres race walk count towards athlete's final scores. Since 2011, racewalking performances at the World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games count towards the series. Women have competed in the 50 km distance since 2018.
Valeriy Viktorovich Borchin is a race walker from Russia who won the 2008 Olympic gold medal and was World champion over the 20 km distance. His World Championship was retroactively stripped in 2015 due to doping.
Liu Hong is a Chinese race walker. She is the world record holder over the Olympic 20km distance with a time of 1:24:38 hours, set in 2015.
Wang Zhen is a Chinese race walker who specialises in the 10 kilometres and 20 kilometres race walk. He holds the senior Asian record for the 20 km with his time of 1:17:36 hours and is also the Asian, Chinese and junior world record holder over 10 km. He was the bronze medallist over 20 km at the 2012 London Olympics and the gold medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Cristian Andrés Chocho León is an Ecuadorian race walker who competes in both the 20 km and 50 km walk events. He is the South American record holder in the 50 km and 20,000 metres walking events.
The 2014 IAAF World Race Walking Cup was held in Taicang, China, on 3–4 May 2014. The course was a 2 km loop along Shanghai Road between Banjing Road and Loujiang Road in the centre of the city. It has already been used for the annual IAAF World Race Walking Challenge event. Detailed reports on the event and an appraisal of the results was given for the IAAF.
Andrey Viktorovich Ruzavin is a Russian racewalking athlete who competes over the 20 kilometres race walk distance. He has a personal best of 1:17:47 hours for the distance, which ranks him in the top twenty of all time. Ruzavin was the silver medallist in the 20 km walk at the 2009 Summer Universiade and a bronze medallist at the 2014 IAAF World Race Walking Cup.
Dane Alex Bird-Smith is an Australian racewalking athlete. He competes in the 20 kilometres race walk, and has a best of 1:19:28 hours for the distance, set in 2017. He competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he was the bronze medallist. Bird-Smith represented Australia at the World Championships in Athletics three times, and has appeared four times at the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships/Cup.
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Sun Huanhuan is a Chinese female racewalking athlete who competes in the 20 kilometres race walk event. She received a silver medal retroactively at the World Championships in Athletics in 2013 after the original gold and silver medallists were disqualified for doping.
Daisuke Matsunaga is a Japanese male racewalking athlete who competes in the 20 kilometres race walk. He holds a personal best of 1:18:53 hours. He represented his nation at the 2016 Summer Olympics and was the 2014 World Junior champion.
Pedro Daniel Gómez is a Mexican racewalking athlete. He holds a personal best of 1:20:05 hours for the 20 kilometres race walk, set in 2016. He represented his country at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He also competed at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics and is a three-time participant at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup.
The men's 20 kilometres race walk at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held on a two kilometre course comprising lengths of The Mall between Buckingham Palace and Admiralty Arch on 13 August 2017.
Wang Na is a Chinese female racewalking athlete.
The 2018 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships was the 28th edition of the global team racewalking competition organised by the Association of Athletics Federations.
Liang Rui is a female Chinese racewalking athlete who competes in the 20 kilometres and 50 kilometres race walk. She was the world record holder for the 50 km walk event and was a gold medalist at the 2018 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships. In 2019 her record was beaten by Hong Liu with a time of 3:59:15. In the same year, she finished outside the top ten in the IAAF Challenge races in Taicang and La Coruña, and was seventh in a national 50 km meeting.
Dzmitry Mikhailavich Dziubin is a Belarusian male racewalking athlete. He was the bronze medallist in the 50 kilometres race walk at the 2018 European Athletics Championships and won silver medals in that event at the European Race Walking Cup and Military World Games in 2019. He has represented Belarus twice at the World Athletics Championships and is a five-time participant at the World Race Walking Team Championships.
The Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix, formerly known as the Taicang IAAF Race Walking Challenge, is an annual race walking competition held in Taicang, China. As of 2023, it is a World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold level meeting – the highest-level circuit of international race walking competitions.