Race walking has long been a feature of many local road races, but plans are now under way to formalise it as a competitive sport under the umbrella of the Bermuda National Athletic Association and its affiliate members.

Race Walking Bermuda is holding Bermuda’s first race walking seminar and a three-day clinic during the weekend of November 28 to 30 at Bermuda College when two foremost authorities on race walking, Jeff Salvage and Tim Seaman, of RaceWalkClinic.com, will be the main presenters.

Swan’s Running Club is the only local club that promotes race-walking development and yesterday the BNAA and Swan’s held a joint press conference to promote the sport.

Sinclair Smith, of Swan’s, holds weekly training sessions designed to teach the rudiments of race-walking techniques and training. Brenton Roberts, chairman of Race Walking Bermuda, describes Smith as the visionary of the sport in Bermuda.

Race walking is an Olympic sport, which was introduced to the Games in 1908, and is also featured at the Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games and CAC Games.

There are only two rules that govern race walking: firstly, that the athlete’s back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched the ground and, secondly, that the supporting leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and remain so until the body passes over it.

“Many people are walking but when you mention race walking they get intimidated,” Smith said. “If you’re doing 20-minute miles that’s okay, but technique is important.

“A lot of people are walking but they lack technique.

“If you come to the seminar, you will learn how to use your arms along with your legs. Most important is consistency and you must do it consistently to get the benefits.”

Those attending the seminar and clinic will learn about the benefits of walking and good technique. As well as formalising the sport on the Island, the objectives include: nurturing a core of trained coaches to develop athletes to compete in race walking events; introducing race walking in schools to encourage growth of the sport and promoting race walking as an BNAA approved sport consistent with IAAF standards.

“When Sinclair came to us we gladly took this on with open arms and we’re here to support BNAA and those who want to do race walking,” said Andre Rochester, of Swan’s Running Club.

Salvage and Seaman will share their experience at the seminar. Salvage is a former international competitor, who tirelessly promotes race walking as a writer, photographer and creator of the Race Walk Like a Champion book and DVD set. Seaman, of the United states, is a two-times Olympian and 43-times national champion.

“Jeff and Tim will be the main presenters and Tim’s wife is the current Canadian Olympic race-walking champion and she will be travelling with them to Bermuda for the weekend presentation over the Thanksgiving holiday,” said Roberts.

Donna Watson, the president of BNAA, added: “Once we get race walking into the school system we can then start introducing race-walking events into our National Championships.”

She added: “Hopefully, out of this process we do find some athletes who are gifted at race walking. Maybe not 2016, but the next Olympics [2020] we may be sending a couple of race walkers to compete for Bermuda. That would be fantastic for us as a small country.”