The men's 50 kilometres race walk at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held on a two kilometre course comprising lengths of The Mall between Buckingham Palace and Admiralty Arch on 13 August.Start list
The winning margin was 8 minutes 5 seconds which as of 2024 is the only time the men's 50 km walk has been won by more than four minutes at these championships. In 2022, the event was discontinued and replaced with the 35 km walk.
Summary Four days before the event, three-time World Championship medallist, Australia's Jared Tallent was forced to withdraw from the event due to a hamstring injury.
From the start, world record holder, 39 year old Yohann Diniz (FRA) walked with a sense of purpose. Save a silver medal in 2007, the World Championships had resulted in disqualifications and failure for him as had the Olympics. On this course in 2012, Diniz became disoriented and was left by the lead pack lying on the ground after he tripped over a barricade.
From the gun, Diniz walked at his own pace at the front of the pack. He made a quick, unplanned pit stop before the 5k mark which brought him back to the pack of some 20 competitors, however only Horacio Nava (MEX) was able to keep pace with him for a short while. Again Diniz walked solo and continued increasing his lead; 41 seconds at 10k, 1:32 at 15k, 2:10 at 20k, 2:59 by halfway.
Chasing Diniz was a pack of podium suitors that stayed together with individuals falling off the back. By half way it was down to seven, with two Ecudorians; Claudio Villanueva and Andrés Chocho; two Japanese Hirooki Arai and Kai Kobayashi; Aleksi Ojala (FIN); Evan Dunfee (CAN); and Yu Wei (CHN). That group stayed together past 35k, where Diniz had a 4:21 lead. At 36k, the two Japanese teammates took off on their own. In the next 4k, they put 27 seconds on the next challenger Dunfee, while Chocho was disqualified for form violation and asked off the course.
Diniz did not suffer a catastrophe. By the last 2k loop, he had lapped everybody except four walkers. Like his world record three years earlier, Diniz spent the last lap celebrating; tying a French flag around his neck like a bandana, slapping hands with the spectators in the front row. He held the French flag above his head as he crossed the finish line. The two Japanese worked together to keep up the pace, the more experienced Arai finally taking a slight lead for silver, 8:05 behind Diniz. It was the second fastest 50k racewalk of all time, only behind Diniz' world record and the largest margin of victory in World Championship history.
Records Before the competition records were as follows:
Record Athlete Date LocationWorld3:32:33Yohann Diniz15 Aug 2014Zürich, SwitzerlandChampionship3:36:03Robert Korzeniowski27 Aug 2003Saint-Denis, FranceWorld leading3:43:05Dementiy Cheparev10 Jun 2017Cheboksary, RussiaAfrican3:54:12Marc MundellMelbourne, AustraliaAsian3:36:06Yu Chaohong22 Oct 2005Nanjing, ChinaNACAC3:41:09Erick Barrondo23 Mar 2013Dudince, SlovakiaSouth American3:42:57Andrés Chocho6 Mar 2016Ciudad Juárez, MexicoEuropean3:32:33Yohann Diniz15 Aug 2014Zürich, SwitzerlandOceanian3:35:47Nathan Deakes2 Dec 2006Geelong, Australia
The following records were set at the competition:
Record Athlete Date Championship3:33:12Yohann Diniz13 Aug 2017World leadingNew Zealand3:46:29Quentin RewHungarian3:43:56Máté Helebrandt
Qualification standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 4:06:00.
Results The final took place on 13 August at 07:46. The results were as follows:
Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Yohann Diniz 3:33:12 Hirooki Arai 3:41:17 Kai Kobayashi 3:41:19 Ihor Hlavan 3:41:42 Satoshi Maruo 3:43:03 Máté Helebrandt 3:43:56 Rafał Augustyn 3:44:18 Robert Heffernan 3:44:41 Marco De Luca 3:45:02 10 Carl Dohmann 3:45:21 11 João Vieira 3:45:28 12 Quentin Rew 3:46:29 13 Karl Junghannß 3:47:01 14 Aleksi Ojala 3:47:20 15 Evan Dunfee 3:47:36 16 Horacio Nava 3:47:53 17 José Ignacio Díaz 3:48:08 18 Claudio Villanueva 3:49:27 19 Ivan Banzeruk 3:49:49 20 Jorge Armando Ruiz 3:50:37 21 José Leyver Ojeda 3:51:17 22 Rafał Fedaczyński 3:52:11 23 Jarkko Kinnunen 3:55:44 24 Adrian Błocki 3:55:49 25 Mathieu Bilodeau 3:56:54 26 Francisco Arcilla 3:57:27 27 Maryan Zakalnytskyy 3:57:29 28 Anders Hansson 3:58:00 29 Park Chil-sung 3:59:46 30 Niu Wenbin 4:01:35 31 Narcis Ștefan Mihăilă 4:02:27 32 Pedro Isidro 4:02:30 33 Ronald Quispe 4:08.22 Michele Antonelli Luis Fernando López Dušan Majdán Arturas Mastianica Iván Pajuelo Yu Wei Edward Araya Andrés Chocho Alejandro Francisco Flórez Håvard Haukenes Dominic King Aku Partanen Florin Alin Știrbu Omar Zepeda Brendan Boyce
References