This Sunday (12 April) the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships will be hosted in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time, with Brasilia welcoming 333 athletes from 40 countries with European stars such as Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Massimo Stano taking to the start line.
This year the competition will also feature the new standard senior race walk distances, marathon and half-marathon, for the first time at a World Athletics Series event, ahead of them being introduced at major championships including the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships.
Here's a look ahead to European prospects.
Men’s half-marathon
At the last edition of these championships, Spain won the men’s 20km overall with Italy in third, and both countries are sending yet another strong team to Brasilia.
World bronze medallist Paul McGrath, Diego Garcia Carrera, and Alvaro Lopez, all of Spain, will compete over the over the new extended 21km distance.
Gianluca Picchiottino leads the Italian team with a solid season's best of 1:25.27 placing him third in Europe so far this year. He will be supported by World University Games champion Andrea Cosi, two-time European U20 medallist Giuseppe Disabato, and 2024 European bronze medallist Francesco Fortunato making up the strong team.
World University Games bronze medallist Mukola Rushchak, the experienced former world bronze medallist Ihor Hlavan team up with Serhii Svitlychnyi for Ukraine in the men's half marathon event.
The target time to be an official European record is 1:23:00.
Men’s marathon
Making his debut over the distance is Italy’s 35km world record holder, Tokyo Olympic 20km champion and 2022 world 35km champion Massimo Stano, and he is sure to be leading the Italian charge in Brasilia.
He will be supported by experience group of teammates, consisting of Andrea Agrusti, Aldo Andrei, Stefano Chiesa, and Riccardo Orsoni, who is the current European best holder over half marathon with 1:24:30, set in winning the inaugural national title over the newly introduced distance in March.
Reigning European 20km champion and four-time world medallist, Perseus Karlström heads the Swedish challenge.
Another name worth watching is Germany’s Karl Junghannß, who sits second in the European lists so far this year having clocked 3:04:33 in Dudince last month, 48 seconds behind European leader Bence Venyercsan. But the Hungarian will not be competing in Brasilia.
Junghannß, a former European U23 silver medallist, heads a strong German team that also includes 2022 European 35km silver medallist Christopher Linke, plus Johannes Frenzl and Leo Kopp.
Former European U23 champion Jose Manuel Perez leads the Spanish team with Manuel Bermudez, who placed fourth at the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships, also selected.
The target time for an official European record is 3:00:00.
Women’s half-marathon
In 2024 China took the team win, with Spain just edging Italy for third with France also in fifth, however countries have had to chose whether to split their best athletes or invest all in the same distance.
Spain’s Antia Chamosa, a former European U23 medallist, is the current European leader (1:33:45) with France’s 2023 U23 gold medallist, Pauline Stey, a mere nine seconds behind.
However, the two-time world and European silver medallist, Katarzyna Zdzieblo of Poland, is yet to make her half-marathon debut and could shake up the current European lists with a big performance in Brasilia.
Two-time, reigning European U20 champion Sofia Santacreu, European U20 bronze medallist Aldara Meilan, and the experienced Lidia Sanchez-Puebla complete a strong Spanish team.
European U23 silver and European U20 bronze medallist, Ana Delahaie of France, will also be making her debut over the distance at 21-years-old with a PB of 1:31:39 over 20km.
The target time for an official European record is 1:32:00.
Women’s marathon
Italy’s 21-year-old, Sofia Fiorini, goes into the marathon race walk ranked third and leads the European standings after setting a PB of 3:27.19 in January.
However, to make the podium she will have to outperform an incredibly competitive Chinese team who take five of the top six ranking spots.
Fiorini is joined in the Italian team by world medallist Eleonora Anna Giorgi, European finalist Federica Curiazzi, Lidia Barcella, and potentially Nicole Colombi who is still deciding which distance she will contest.
Türkiye's 2019 U23 Champion, Ayse Aslan, will be leading her country after making her distance debut in March when winning silver at the Balkan Race Walking Championships.
The target time for an official European record is 3:23:00 for the marathon.
U20 men's and U20 women's 10km races
At the last edition, Spain won the women’s U20 event with all three athletes in the top six and were the leading European country for the men’s race while placing fourth in the world.
However, this year the top ranked athlete is France’s Chloe Le Roch with a season’s best just one second faster than Italy’s Serena Di Fabio, the reigning European U18 champion and U20 silver medallist.
Valentina Adamo and Francesca Gloria Buselli complete the strong Italian team, with all three of nation’s athletes in the top 10.
In the men’s 10km, France also field the strongest European athlete in Clement Rabreau who is ranked fifth overall in the entries.
But the reigning European U18 champion, Italy’s Alessio Coppola, will be looking to climb the ranks and make his way to the podium.
Coppola will be joined by Nicolo Vidal and Cristian Cecchetto as Italy look to make the podium in the team event.