The men's 20 kilometres walk event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 5 August 2021 in Sapporo. Approximately 60 athletes competed; the exact number was dependent on how many nations use universality places to enter athletes in addition to the number qualifying through time (no universality places were used in 2016). The reigning champion was Wang Zhen of China.
Background This was the 17th appearance of the event, having appeared at every Olympics since 1956.
Qualification
A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 20 kilometres walk if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 1:21:00. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 60 is reached.
The qualifying period was originally from 1 January 2019 to 31 May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period. In July 2020, World Athletics announced that the suspension period would be lifted for the road events (marathons and race walks) on 1 September 2020.
NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 20 kilometres walk.
Men's 20 km walk Entry number: 60.
Qualification standardNo. of athletes NOC Nominated athletesEntry standard – 1:21:003 Cai ZelinWang KaihuaZhang Jun3 Irfan Kolothum ThodiSandeep KumarRahul Rohilla3 Francesco FortunatoMassimo StanoFederico Tontodonati3 Koki IkedaEiki TakahashiToshikazu Yamanishi3 Noel Alí ChamaAndrés OlivasJesús Tadeo Vega3 Álvaro MartínDiego GarcíaMiguel Ángel López1 Dane Bird-SmithRhydian Cowley2 Caio BonfimMatheus Corrêa1 Éider ArévaloJosé Leonardo Montaña1 Andrés ChochoBrian Pintado2 Gabriel BordierKévin Campion2 Nils BrembachChristopher LinkeAlternate Athlete: Hagen Pohle, SC Potsdam, qualified by Ranking.2 Tom BosworthCallum Wilkinson2 José Alejandro BarrondoJosé Ortiz2 Ivan LosevEduard Zabuzhenko0 Alex Wright1 Georgiy Sheiko0 Samuel Gathimba1 Marius Žiūkas1 Vasiliy Mizinov1 Wayne Snyman1 Choe Byeong-kwang1 Perseus Karlström1 Salih KorkmazWorld ranking1 Leo Köpp2 Şahin ŞenoduncuAbdulselam İmuk1 Viktor Shumik1 Łukasz Niedziałek2 Jhon CastañedaManuel Esteban Soto2 César RodríguezLuis Henry Campos2 Kyle SwanDeclan Tingay1 Aliaksandr Liakhovich1 David Kenny1 Lebogang Shange1 Miroslav Úradník1 Lucas Mazzo1 Nick Christie Total 60
Competition format and course The event consists of a single race.
Records Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.
Area Time Athlete Nation Africa 1:19:02 Hatem Ghoula Asia 1:16:36 Yusuke Suzuki Europe 1:17:02 Yohann Diniz North, Central America and Caribbean 1:17:46 Julio René Martínez Oceania 1:17:33 Nathan Deakes South America 1:17:21 Jefferson Pérez
Schedule All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)
The men's 20 kilometres walk took place on a single day.
Date Time Round Thursday, 5 August 2021 16:30 Final
Results
Rank Athlete Nation Time Time behind Notes Massimo Stano 1:21:05 Koki Ikeda 1:21:14 +0:09 Toshikazu Yamanishi 1:21:28 +0:23 4 Álvaro Martín 1:21:46 +0:41 5 Christopher Linke 1:21:50 +0:45 6 Diego García 1:21:57 +0:52 7 Wang Kaihua 1:22:03 +0:58 8 Zhang Jun 1:22:16 +1:11 9 Perseus Karlström 1:22:29 +1:24 10 Callum Wilkinson 1:22:38 +1:33 11 Andrés Olivas 1:22:46 +1:41 12 Brian Pintado 1:22:54 +1:49 13 Caio Bonfim 1:23:21 +2:16 14 Manuel Esteban Soto 1:23:32 +2:27 15 Francesco Fortunato 1:23:43 +2:38 16 Kévin Campion 1:23:53 +2:48 17 Declan Tingay 1:24:00 +2:55 18 Éider Arévalo 1:24:10 +3:05 19 David Hurtado 1:24:31 +3:26 20 Wayne Snyman 1:24:33 +3:28 21 César Rodríguez 1:24:40 +3:35 22 Leo Kopp 1:24:46 +3:41 23 Sandeep Kumar 1:25:07 +4:02 24 Gabriel Bordier 1:25:23 +4:18 25 Tom Bosworth 1:25:57 +4:52 26 Cai Zelin 1:26:39 +5:34 27 Jhon Castañeda 1:26:41 +5:36 28 Nils Brembach 1:26:45 +5:40 29 David Kenny 1:26:54 +5:49 30 José Oswaldo Calel 1:26:55 +5:50 31 Miguel Ángel López 1:27:12 +6:07 32 Eiki Takahashi 1:27:29 +6:24 33 Marius Žiūkas 1:27:35 +6:30 34 Şahin Şenoduncu 1:27:39 +6:34 35 Jordy Jiménez 1:27:52 +6:47 36 Kyle Swan 1:27:55 +6:50 37 Choe Byeong-kwang 1:28:12 +7:07 38 Noel Alí Chama 1:28:23 +7:18 39 Georgiy Sheiko 1:28:38 +7:33 40 José Ortiz 1:28:57 +7:52 41 Miroslav Úradník 1:29:25 +8:20 42 Jesús Tadeo Vega 1:30:37 +9:32 43 Luis Henry Campos 1:30:58 +9:53 44 Federico Tontodonati 1:31:19 +10:14 45 Aliaksandr Liakhovich 1:31:28 +10:23 46 Matheus Correa 1:31:47 +10:42 47 Rahul Rohilla 1:32:06 +11:01 48 Abdulselam İmük 1:32:27 +11:22 49 Ivan Losev 1:33:26 +12:21 50 Nick Christie 1:34:37 +13:32 51 Irfan Kolothum Thodi 1:34:41 +13:36 52 Eduard Zabuzhenko 1:39:38 +18:33 Lucas Mazzo Did not finish Łukasz Niedziałek Salih Korkmaz Vasiliy Mizinov Disqualified José Alejandro Barrondo
References