Following their performance at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championship Antalya 21 on Sunday (April 24), they automatically qualified for the marathon race walking mixed relay race (2024 teams) at the Paris 22 Olympic Games.
The marathon walking mixed relay is making its Olympic debut in Paris in August alongside the WRW Antalya 24, the new discipline's main qualifying event.
The relay race consists of teams of one man and one woman completing the marathon distance (42.195km) in four legs of approximately equal distance. Each athlete, male, female, male, female competes alternately in two legs.
A total of 22 teams found places in Antalya for Paris. Up to five of the top 22 teams can field a second team from the same country, and Japan, Spain, Australia, China and Colombia have qualified with two teams each.
Teams that could not participate in the World Team Walking Championship held in Antalya continue to have the chance to participate in Paris by entering the best performance list in the marathon race walking mixed relay race. During the qualifying period (December 31, 2022 – June 30, 2024), three more teams may qualify from events that are on the best performance list and comply with the race walk requirements. These three additional teams cannot be from a country that has participated in the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Antalya 24.
The World Walking Championships ended with the Mixed Relay Marathon Race.
Our national team, consisting of Salih Korkmaz and Meryem Bekmez, received the Paris 2024 quota in the mixed relay marathon race held for the first time in the World Walking Team Championship.
In the Mixed Relay Marathon Race, the Italy 2 team consisting of Francesco Fortunato and Valentina Trapletti won the gold with a time of 2.56.45, the Japan team consisting of Koki Ikeda and Kumiko Okada won the silver with a time of 2.57.04, Alvaro Martin and Laura Garcia-Caro. The Spanish team won the bronze medal with a time of 2.57.47.
With these results; Italy 2, Japan, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Spain 2, Ukraine 3, France, Spain 3, China 2, China, Colombia 2, Germany, Colombia, Australia 2, Japan 3, India, Mexico 2, Turkey, Slovakia Ukrainian 2 teams will seek medals in the mixed relay race to be held for the first time in Paris 2024.
FATİH ÇİNTİMAR: “WE MADE HISTORY IN ANTALYA TODAY”
Making a statement after the organization, Turkish Athletics Federation President Fatih Çintimar said, “We made history in Antalya today. We completed the mixed relay marathon race, held for the first time in the world. From here, 22 teams received their quotas for Paris 2024. So we bought it. We watched a very difficult race together. We congratulate all athletes who participated in the competition. It would have been great to get a medal here, but as a result of the penalty points, the team fell backwards. But it was very important for us to achieve our own quotas here and for our athlete Mazlum Demir to achieve his best finish, especially in the 20 km men's race. Hopefully, he will also achieve the Olympic quota through the ranking system. Our flag team received a direct Olympic quota. "This was extremely important and pleasing for us," he said.