Women To Compete in 50km Race Walk -- Federations Focus

(ATR) Women will have their first opportunity to compete alongside men in the 50 kilometer race walk at this year’s championships in Rome, Italy.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Race Walking Team Championships will begin May 7 and will give women competitors the chance to set the very first world record in the event for women. The women’s results will also count equally towards the team standings as the men’s results.

The IAAF executive council made the decision to include women in the discipline on Friday, April 8 following a petition from race walker Erin Taylor-Talcott.

"This is such a huge and amazing step for women’s rights and female race walkers all over the world," says Talcott. "I’m feeling so many emotions right now, but the main one is excitement to get out on the course ready to race my hardest against the best in the world."

IAAF president Seb Coe says the amendment is an "important step to ensure equal competition opportunities for men and women at IAAF competitions".

"In recent decades we have seen the introduction of the pole vault and hammer throw for women," says Coe. "While there are still differences in some men’s and women’s events … the 50km race walk until now remained the last event solely open to men."

Rio 2016 Olympic Football Tournament Draw

Twenty-eight football teams will learn their path through the Rio2016 Olympic Games this Thursday in Rio de Janeiro's MaracanaStadium.

Organizers will attempt to keep teams from the same confederation fromplaying against one another in the group stage by using a ranking systemthat takes into account past Olympic performances and confederationchampions. The men's tournament will be separated into four groups offour called 'pots' while the women's tournament will be broken down intofour pots of three.

The selection will then take place by choosing a team from pot onefollowed by a numbered ball in one of the four venue groups. Pot one iscompletely emptied before pot two teams are given their venueassignments and so on to pot four.

Host country Brazil has been assigned to position A1 in the men's tournament and E1 in the women's.

The football tournament will begin two days prior to the Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony on Aug. 3 and will conclude on Aug. 20.

Mixed Doubles Curling Championships Underway Saturday

The World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship begins this Saturday in Karlstad, Sweden.

Now in its ninth edition, this event marks the first time it will serveas an Olympic qualifier as the discipline was added to the sportsprogram for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.

A record 42 teams will take part in the tournament, each consisting ofone male and female as opposed to standard curling that has teams offour. The discipline also uses only six stones as opposed to eight.

The six groups of teams will begin round robin play on April 16. The tournament concludes on Saturday, April 23.

U.S. Rowing Trials Begin Sunday

The United States Olympic and Paralympic rowing trials will get underway this Sunday, April 17 in Sarasota, Florida. The event will take place at Nathan Benderson Park with six of the nine disciplines determining the U.S. rowing team for the Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics.

A total of 73 crews from 30 club teams are registered to compete in the week-long regatta. The event will serve as a tune-up for the 2017 World Rowing Championships set to take place at the same venue.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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