The general public knew Aurélien Quinion during the world athletics championships in Budapest last August. The French record holder for the 35 km (2 h 25 min 57 sec) started alone in front of the peloton before being disqualified for four warnings. So we went to see the man who is also a trainer at Sannois-Saint-Gratien (Val-d’Oise) so that he could better explain the rules of athletic walking to us.
Two imperatives for walking: always have one of the two feet in contact with the ground and the leg which touches the ground must be straight. A priori nothing complicated. However, for ordinary people, on the athletics track, it is quite the opposite. Coordination problems, desire to run, flexibility of the hips to review… Taking up athletic walking is really not for everyone.
Despite the advice of our Olympic walker, who should compete in the 20 km and the mixed relay, we struggled like never before. The high point was the “race” contested against Aurélien Quinion, capable of walking at 15 km/h during “real” events. Suffice it to say that we were still close to the starting line when he had already arrived. Sink or swim.
A video can be found at the top of this article.