Race walking is ready for shorter races and new technology in order to stay relevant in a changing athletics environment, the ruling athletics body IAAF said on Wednesday.
The IAAF race walking committee agreed at a meeting last weekend to propose cutting 20km events to 10km and 50km events to 30km at major championships from 2023.
Insole chip technology, to detect rule violations, is to be introduced by 2021 if tests are successful.
Gender equality is also to be achieved, with a women's 50km already contested at the 2017 world championships and 2018 Euros.
The IAAF hopes to have the women's 50km debut at the Olympics next year in Tokyo.
"The Committee is very proud of the history and the tradition of our events, but our main goal right now is to secure the future of race walking beyond Tokyo 2020 and offer to the young generations of race walkers nothing less," committee chairman Maurizio Damilano said.
Poland's Robert Korzeniowski, a three-time Olympic and three-time world champion in the 50km who is also on the commission, also endorsed the changes to be proposed to the IAAF council.
"The world is changing fast and we need to be realistic, to move forward and be brave in order to be relevant with the broadcast and digital media and to secure the future of race walking in major competitions," he said.
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