Race walking
Encyclopedia
Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance athletic event. Although it is a foot race, it is different from running
Running
Running is a means of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. It is simply defined in athletics terms as a gait in which at regular points during the running cycle both feet are off the ground...

 in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Stride length is reduced, so to achieve competitive speeds, racewalkers must attain cadence
Cadence (gait)
Cadence in sports involving running is the total number of 'revolutions per minute' , or number of full cycles taken within a minute, by the pair of feet, and is used as a measure of athletic performance. It is very similar in respect to cadence in cycling, however it is often overlooked in its...

 rates comparable to those achieved by Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 400-metre runners—and they must do so for hours at a time since the Olympic events are the 20 kilometre race walk and 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) race walk.

Rules

There are two rules that govern racewalking. The first dictates that the athlete's back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched. Violation of this rule is known as loss of contact. The second rule requires that the supporting leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and remain straightened until the body passes directly over it. These rules are judged by the human eye, which creates controversy at today's high speeds. Athletes may sometimes lose contact for a few milliseconds per stride which can be caught on high-speed film, but such a short flight phase is undetectable to the human eye.

Athletes stay low to the ground by keeping their arms pumping low, close to their hips. If one sees a racewalker's shoulders rising, it may be a sign that the athlete is losing contact with the ground. What appears to be an exaggerated swivel to the hip is, in fact, a full rotation of the pelvis. Athletes aim to move the pelvis forward, and to minimize sideways motion in order to achieve maximum forward propulsion. Speed is achieved by stepping quickly with the aim of rapid turnover. This minimizes the risk of the feet leaving the ground. Strides are short and quick, with pushoff coming forward from the ball of the foot, again to minimize the risk of losing contact with the ground. World-class racewalkers (male and female) can average under seven and eight minutes per mile (or under four and five minutes per kilometre, respectively), in a 20 km (12.4 mi) racewalk.

Judges

There are judges on the course to monitor form. Three judges submitting "red cards" for violations results in disqualification. There is a scoreboard placed on the course so competitors can see their violation status. If the third violation is received, the chief judge removes the competitor from the course by showing a red paddle. For monitoring reasons, races are held on a looped course or on a track so judges get to see competitors several times during a race. A judge could also "caution" a competitor that he or she is in danger of losing form by showing a paddle that indicates either losing contact or bent knees. No judge may submit more than one card for each walker and the chief judge may not submit any cards; it is his or her job only to disqualify the offending walker. Disqualifications are routine at the elite level, such as the famous case of Jane Saville
Jane Saville
Jane Kara Saville is an Australian race walker who won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She was born in Sydney....

 disqualified within sight of a gold medal in front of her home crowd in the 2000 Summer Olympics
2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

.

Birth of sport

Racewalking developed as one of the original track and field events of the first meeting of the English Amateur Athletics Association in 1880. The first racewalking codes came from an attempt to regularize rules for popular 19th century long distance competitive walking events, called Pedestrianism
Pedestrianism
Pedestrianism was a 19th-century form of competitive walking, often professional and funded by wagering, from which the modern sport of racewalking developed.-18th- and early 19th-century Britain:...

. Pedestrianism had developed, like footraces and horse racing, as a popular working class British and American pastime, and a venue for wagering. Walkers organised the first English amateur walking championship in 1866, which was won by John Chambers, and judged by the "fair heel and toe" rule. This rather vague code was the basis for the rules codified at the first Championships Meeting in 1880 of the Amateur Athletics Association in England, the birth of modern Athletics. With Football (soccer)
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

, Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 and other sports codified in the 19th century, the transition from professional Pedestrianism to amateur racewalking was, while relatively late, part of a process of regularisation occurring in most modern sports at this time.

Olympics

Racewalking is an Olympic athletics (track and field) event with distances of 20 kilometres for both men and women and 50 kilometres for men only. Racewalking first appeared in the modern Olympics in 1904 as a half-mile walk in the 'all-rounder,' the precursor to the 10-event decathlon
Decathlon
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin . Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not...

. In 1908, stand-alone 1,500m and 3,000m racewalks were added, and—excluding 1924—there has been at least one racewalk (for men) in every Olympics since. The women's racewalk became an Olympic event only in 1992, following years of active lobbying by female internationals. A World Cup
IAAF World Race Walking Cup
The IAAF World Race Walking Cup is a race walking event organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It has been held since 1961, and generally on a biennial basis. Women first entered the 1979 edition. It was formerly known as the Lugano Cup after the city that hosted the...

 in racewalking is held biennially, and racewalk events appear in the IAAF Athletics World Championships
IAAF World Championships in Athletics
The World Championships in Athletics is an event organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations . Originally, it was organised every four years, but this changed in 1991, and it has since been organised biennially.-History:...

, the Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....

 and the Pan American Games
Pan American Games
The Pan-American or Pan American Games are a major event in the Americas featuring summer and formerly winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Pan American Games are the second largest multi-sport event after the Summer Olympics...

, among others.

World Race Walking Challenge

Since 2003, the IAAF has organised an annual worldwide competition series in which elite athletes accumulate points for the right to compete in the IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final and to share over 200,000 USD of prize money. The series of televised events takes place in several countries each year including Mexico, Spain, Russia and China.

High school

Racewalking is sometimes included in high school indoor and outdoor track meets. The distances walked tend to be relatively short, under two miles, with the 1500 m and Mile being the most commonly held events. Significant racing also occurs at 3 km, 5 km and 10 km, with records kept and annual rankings published.

20 km

MarkAthleteNationalityVenueDate
1:17:16 Vladimir Kanaykin
Vladimir Kanaykin
Vladimir Alekseevich Kanaykin is a Russian race walker.On September 29, 2007 Kanaykin set a new world record for the 20 km race walk at the 2007 IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final, in Saransk, Russia...

 
Saransk
Saransk
Saransk is a city in central European Russia and the capital of the Republic of Mordovia, as well as its financial and economic center. It is located in the Volga basin at the confluence of the Saranka and Insar Rivers, about east of Moscow...

 
September 28, 2007
1:17:21 Jefferson Pérez
Jefferson Pérez
Jefferson Leonardo Pérez Quezada is a retired Ecuadorian race walker. He specializes in the 20 km event, in which he has won the only two medals his country has ever achieved in the Olympic Games....

 
Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 
August 23, 2003
1:17:22 Francisco Javier Fernández
Francisco Javier Fernández
Francisco Javier Fernández Peláez is a Spanish race walker. He specializes in the 20 km race walk....

 
Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...

 
April 28, 2002
1:17:25 Bernardo Segura
Bernardo Segura
Bernardo Segura Rivera is a Mexican race walker.He is a former holder of the 20,000m World Record for Race Walking with a time of 1:17:25.6....

 
Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

 
May 7, 1994
1:17:33 Nathan Deakes
Nathan Deakes
Nathan Deakes is an Australian race walker. Deakes trains with the Australian Institute of Sport....

 
Cixi City
Cixi City
Cixi is a city within the sub-provincial city of Ningbo located in China's Zhejiang province.- History :The city was captured by British forces in the Battle of Tsekee on 15 March 1842 during the First Opium War...

 
April 23, 2005
1:18:04 Bu Lingtang  Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

 
April 7, 1994
1:18:13 Pavol Blažek
Pavol Blažek
Pavol Blažek is a retired race walker, who represented Czechoslovakia and later Slovakia in the Olympic Games. He was born in Trnava.-Achievements:-External links:...

 
Hildesheim
Hildesheim
Hildesheim is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the district of Hildesheim, about 30 km southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste river, which is a small tributary of the Leine river...

 
September 9, 1990
1:18:20 Andrey Perlov
Andrey Perlov
Andrey Borisovich Perlov is a retired race walker who represented the USSR and later Russia.Perlov won the gold medal over 50 kilometres at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona...

 
Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 
May 26, 1990
1:19:08 Mikhail Shchennikov
Mikhail Shchennikov
Mikhail Anatolyevich Shchennikov is a Russian race walker.He was born in Sverdlovsk. His son Georgi Shchennikov is a professional footballer for PFC CSKA Moscow.-Achievements:-External links:...

 
Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 
July 30, 1988
1:19:12 Axel Noack
Axel Noack
Axel Noack is a German former race walker. On 21 June 1987 in Chemnitz he achieved a new world best time in 20 km walk with 1'19:12 hours.-Achievements:-References:...

 
Karl-Marx-Stadt  June 21, 1987

50 km

MarkAthleteNationalityVenueDate
3:34:13 Denis Nizhegorodov
Denis Nizhegorodov
Denis Gennadyevich Nizhegorodov is a Russian race walker and current world record holder in the 50 km racewalk, with a time of 3:34:14, set in Cheboksary on May 11, 2008.-Achievements:-References:...

 
Cheboksary
Cheboksary
-Twin towns/sister cities:Cheboksary is twinned with: Eger in Hungary Antalya in Turkey Santa Clara in CubaAlso Partnerships are shown with: Rundu in Namibia -External links:****...

 
May 5, 2008
3:35:47 Nathan Deakes
Nathan Deakes
Nathan Deakes is an Australian race walker. Deakes trains with the Australian Institute of Sport....

 
Geelong  December 2, 2006
3:36:03 Robert Korzeniowski
Robert Korzeniowski
Robert Korzeniowski is a former Polish racewalker. He has won four gold medals at the Summer Olympics and three at world championships....

 
Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 
August 27, 2003
3:36:04 Alex Schwazer
Alex Schwazer
Alex Schwazer is an Italian race walker.Schwazer won the bronze medal in the 50 km race at the 2005 World Championships in a national record time of 3:41.54 hours...

 
Rosignano Solvay
Rosignano Marittimo
Rosignano Marittimo is a comune in the Province of Livorno in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 80 km southwest of Florence and about 20 km southeast of Livorno....

 
February 11, 2007
3:36:06 Yu Chaohong  Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

 
October 22, 2005
3:36:13 Zhao Chengliang
Zhao Chengliang
Zhao Chengliang is a Chinese race walker. Zhao won the 50 km walk event at the 11th Chinese National Games in 2009.-Achievements:-References:...

 
Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

 
October 22, 2005
3:36:20 Han Yucheng
Han Yucheng
Han Yucheng is a Chinese race walker. He competed at the 20 km race walk event at the 2004 Summer Olympics.-Achievements:-References:...

 
Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

 
February 27, 2005
3:36:42 German Skurygin
German Skurygin
German Skurygin was a Russian race walker.He originally won a gold medal at the 1999 World Championships, but later lost it due to doping. He was suspended from 1999-2001.He died of a heart attack.-Achievements:-References:*...

 
Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 
August 27, 2003
3:37:26 Valeriy Spitsyn
Valeriy Spitsyn
Valeriy Anatolyevich Spitsyn is a retired male race walker from Russia.-Achievements:-External links:*...

 
Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 
May 21, 2000
3:37:41 Andrey Perlov
Andrey Perlov
Andrey Borisovich Perlov is a retired race walker who represented the USSR and later Russia.Perlov won the gold medal over 50 kilometres at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona...

 
Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...

 
August 5, 1989

20 km

MarkAthleteNationalityVenueDate
1:24:50 Olimpiada Ivanova
Olimpiada Ivanova
Olimpiada Vladimirovna Ivanova is a Russian race walker. She has 4 medals from the major events. She was born in Munsjuty, Chuvashia.Her first gold medal was won in the 2001 Edmonton World Championships, where she beat the rest of the world with the time 1.27:48...

 
Adler
Adler
The term Adler, the German word for the bird of prey "eagle", is both the last name of many people and an emblematic bird featured on many blazons since the feudal age, including the present German Bundeswappen and at times on the flags of Austria and Germany...

 
March 4, 2001
1:25:08 Vera Sokolova
Vera Sokolova
Vera Sokolova is a Russian race walker.A gold medalist on the track at World Youth and European Junior level, she won her first major senior medal at the 2010 European Athletics Championships, taking the 20 km road walk bronze medal...

 
Sochi
Sochi
Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...

 
February 23, 2011
1:25:18 Tatyana Gudkova
Tatyana Gudkova
-Achievements:-References:...

 
Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 
May 19, 2000
1:25:20 Olga Polyakova  Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 
May 19, 2000
1:25:29 Irina Stankina
Irina Stankina
Irina Stankina is a Russian race walker. The 1994 World Junior champion and record holder, in 1995 she won the 10 km race at the World Championships as the youngest ever . She later walked the 20 km distance in 1:25:29 hours, the fourth best time ever.-Achievements:-External links:...

 
Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 
May 19, 2000
1:25:59 Tamara Kovalenko  Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 
May 19, 2000
1:26:22 Wang Yan
Wang Yan (athlete)
Wang Yan is a Chinese race walker, who won the bronze medal over 10 km at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She also won the 1993 IAAF World Race Walking Cup, as well as a silver medal at the 1999 World Championships and a bronze at the 2001 East Asian Games.-Achievements:-External links:...

 
Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

 
November 19, 2001
1:26:22 Yelena Nikolayeva
Yelena Nikolayeva
Yelena Nikolayevna Nikolayeva is a Russian race walker.Her first international achievement was a fifth place at the 1987 World Championships, something which happened again at the 1991 World Indoor Championships. One year later she won an Olympic silver medal behind Chen Yueling...

 
Cheboksary
Cheboksary
-Twin towns/sister cities:Cheboksary is twinned with: Eger in Hungary Antalya in Turkey Santa Clara in CubaAlso Partnerships are shown with: Rundu in Namibia -External links:****...

 
May 18, 2003
1:26:23 Wang Liping
Wang Liping (athlete)
Wang Liping is a Chinese race walker who became an Olympic champion by winning the 20 kilometer event in 2000. Four years later in Athens she finished eighth in the 20 kilometre walk race....

 
Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

 
November 19, 2001
1:26:28 Irina Pudovkina  Adler
Adler
The term Adler, the German word for the bird of prey "eagle", is both the last name of many people and an emblematic bird featured on many blazons since the feudal age, including the present German Bundeswappen and at times on the flags of Austria and Germany...

 
March 12, 2005
1:26:31 Olga Kaniskina
Olga Kaniskina
Olga Nikolayevna Kaniskina is a Russian race walker. She won the silver medal in the 20 km walk at the 2006 European Championships and gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics...

 
Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

 
August 21, 2008
1:26:35 Liu Hongyu
Liu Hongyu
Liu Hongyu is a female Chinese race walker.-Achievements:-External links:...

 
Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

 
November 19, 2001
  • : These times were achieved without the presence of international judges to officiate the competition and/or post-race doping tests, thus making them invalid for world record status. However, they are accepted as personal best marks for those athletes.

Film

  • Doctor Detroit
    Doctor Detroit
    Doctor Detroit is a 1983 comedy film, written by Bruce Jay Friedman, Robert Boris and Carl Gottlieb. The film stars Dan Aykroyd, Howard Hesseman, Lynn Whitfield, Fran Drescher, and Donna Dixon, with a special appearance by James Brown. The film was directed by Michael Pressman.James Brown performed...

    (1983) Dan Akroyd uses racewalking as a vehicle to emphasize his nerdy professor character.
  • Walk Don't Run
    Walk Don't Run
    Walk, Don't Run is a 1966 comedy film set in Tokyo during the Olympic Games in 1964. The movie marked the last appearance by Cary Grant in a feature film, and is a remake of the 1943 film The More the Merrier.-Plot:...

    : (Columbia Pictures Corporation) A 1966 Cary Grant
    Cary Grant
    Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...

     movie, revolving around race walking at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics
    1964 Summer Olympics
    The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...

    .
  • Walkin' Free: Fictional, short film, soon to be adapted into a feature.
  • When Harry Met Sally (1989) Billy Crystal
    Billy Crystal
    William Edward "Billy" Crystal is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes...

     walks in Central Park
    Central Park
    Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...

  • Are We Done Yet?
    Are We Done Yet?
    Are We Done Yet? is a 2007 family comedy film starring Ice Cube. The film is both a remake of the classic Cary Grant comedy Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and a sequel to 2005's comedy Are We There Yet? The film was directed by Steve Carr from a screenplay by Hank Nelken...

    : starring Ice Cube
    Ice Cube
    O'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...

     and John C. McGinley
    John C. McGinley
    John Christopher McGinley is an American actor, most notable for his roles as Perry Cox in Scrubs, Bob Slydell in Office Space, Sergeant Red O'Neill in Oliver Stone's Platoon and Marv in Stone's Wall Street. He has also written and produced for television and film...

    , the eccentric jack of all trades
    Jack of all trades, master of none
    "Jack of all trades, master of none" is a figure of speech used in reference to a person that is competent with many skills but is not necessarily outstanding in any particular one....

     contractor who is also a former professional racewalker.

Television

  • Almost Live! features a regular sketch of the Speed Walker, played by Bill Nye
    Bill Nye
    William Sanford "Bill" Nye , popularly known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, is an American science educator, comedian, television host, actor, mechanical engineer, and scientist...

     as a super hero who fights crime while adhering to the competitive rules.
  • Malcolm in the Middle
    Malcolm in the Middle
    Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2000, and ended its six-and-a-half-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes...

    : Episode #70 (Malcolm Holds His Tongue). Hal takes up racewalking and discovers that one of the competitors had been cheating.

Video games

  • Homestarrunner.com: 50K Racewalker. A game where the player must racewalk 50 kilometers in order to win, requiring more than 20 hours to complete.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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