UK Athletics was delighted with the European Athletics Association (EAA) decision to stage the 2007 European Cup Race Walking at Royal Leamington Spa. “It will be the best way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Race Walking Association in 2007,” said Peter Marlow, Head of the UKA Race Walking Policy and Support Team. “The RWA is the oldest organisation of its kind in the world, having been established a year before it organised the race walks at the 1908 Olympic Games, and the Cup will help us mark the centenary by building for the future. The European Cup will offer the opportunity for our emerging young walkers to face many of the world’s best on their home course.”
The EAA decision is the latest success for UKA’s strategy of attracting major events in all disciplines to provide athletes and officials will ample opportunity to experience top class competition in the nation that will host the 2012 Olympic Games. It has already been announced that the 2007 European Indoor Championships will be held in the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham.
Organisers are determined that the European Cup of Race Walking will provide a significant boost to the local economy and help to raise the profile of Leamington and Warwick as major tourist destinations. The successful bid team thank Warwickshire College, University of Warwick, Integrated Hydraulics, NP Aerospace and The Premier Group for their support of the bid.
Dr Ian Richards, of the Leamington 2007 Bid Team, said: “It is vital that we have some major race walking events in this country prior to the Olympics in order to give our officials the opportunity to develop their skills and experience world class competition. It will also be a unique opportunity for some of our up and coming athletes such as Dominic and Daniel King, Nick Ball, Katie Stones, Jo Jackson and Rebecca Mersh to compete in front of a home crowd and provide them with a launch pad to 2012.”
The Leamington bid was a joint venture between UK Athletics, the Race Walking Association and Warwick District Council. It promises a number of innovations that will offer a unique opportunity for race walking events to be showcased and promoted in a spectator friendly manner.
The course is based around Victoria Park and Archery Road, Leamington – not to be confused with Victoria Park, Hackney, which was used for the 1908 Olympics and will be the walkers’ venue again in 2012. The Leamington course staged the 2000 Eight Nations International and already has a reputation as a fast circuit.
The course records are:
Men’s 20km: Francisco Fernandez (Spain) 80:18
Men’s 50km: Giovanni Perricelli (Italy) 3:50:21
Women’s 20km: Liu Hongyu (China) 88:40
The loop within the park has been used regularly for the annual EAA Royal Leamington Spa Grand Prix of Race Walking and National Championships – and coped easily with a field of 100 in last year’s National 20km Championship.
The European Cup will come to Leamington on Sunday 20 May 2007 and the timetable will represent a significant innovation in the staging and presentation of the event. Each race will be showcased and presented to the audience separately as opposed to the model used in the last three editions of the event, where the two junior races have taken place during the men’s 50km, making it difficult for spectators to follow the action.
The proposed timetable at Leamington is:
8.00: Men’s 50km
12.00: Junior Men’s 10km
13.00: Junior Women’s 10km
14.00: Women’s 20km
16.00: Men’s 20km
The compact nature of the course means that spectators will be able to see all the action as if it was taking place in a stadium. Such benefits are considered to be crucial if race walking events are to reach a wider audience.
For more information visit the European Race Walking Cup 2007 website.
