Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 kilometres walk

The men's 50 kilometres walk event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 6 August 2021 in Sapporo. 59 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).

Background This was the 20th appearance of the event: except for 1976, it has appeared at every Olympics since 1932. The reigning champion is Matej Tóth of Slovakia.

Due to the Olympics' movement towards gender equality (the 50 kilometres walk was the only men's event on the 2020 athletics programme with no women's equivalent) and declining fan attendance and TV ratings for the event, the men's 50 kilometres walk was replaced by a mixed-team marathon walk relay at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 50 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 3:50:00. 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 31 May 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 50 kilometres walk.

Men's 50km walk Qualification standardNo. of athletes NOC Nominated athletes Entry standard – 3:50:003 Bian TongdaLuo YadongWang Qin3 Carl DohmannJonathan HilbertNathaniel Seiler3 Andrea AgrustiTeodorico CaporasoMarco De Luca3 Hayato KatsukiMasatora KawanoSatoshi Maruo3 Rafał AugustynArtur BrzozowskiDawid Tomala2 Diego PinzónJorge Ruiz2 Andrés ChochoClaudio Villanueva2 Aleksi OjalaAku Partanen2 Bernardo BarrondoLuis Ángel Sánchez2 Isaac PalmaHoracio Nava2 Luis Manuel CorcheteMarc Tur2 Ivan BanzerukMaryan Zakalnytskyy1 Dzmitry Dziubin1 Evan Dunfee1 Yohann Diniz 1 Brendan Boyce1 Arturas Mastianica1 Quentin Rew1 Håvard Haukenes1 João Vieira1 Matej TóthWorld ranking2 Vít HlaváčLukáš Gdula2 Bence VenyercsánMáté Helebrandt2 Arnis RumbenieksRuslans Smolonskis1 Rhydian Cowley1 Caio Bonfim1 Mathieu Bilodeau1 José Montaña1 Jhonatan Amores1 Jarkko Kinnunen1 Alexandros Papamichail1 Érick Bernabé Barrondo1 Gurpreet Singh1 Alex Wright1 José Leyver1 Marius Cocioran1 Michal Morvay1 Marc Mundell1 Jesús Ángel García1 Ihor Hlavan 60 30 Totals

Competition format and course The event consisted of a single race.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.

Area Time Athlete Nation Africa 3:54:12 Marc Mundell Asia 3:36:06 Yu Chaohong Europe 3:32:33 Yohann Diniz North, Central America and Caribbean 3:41:09 Erick Barrondo Oceania 3:35:47 Nathan Deakes South America 3:42:57 Andrés Chocho

Schedule All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The men's 50 kilometres walk took place on a single day.

Date Time Round Friday, 6 August 2021 5:30 Final

Results Key: PBPersonal bestSBSeasonal best~Loss of contact>Bent kneeTR 54.7.5Disqualified by Rule TR 54.7.5 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes Dawid Tomala 3:50:08 Jonathan Hilbert 3:50:44~~ Evan Dunfee 3:50:594 Marc Tur 3:51:08>>5 João Vieira 3:51:286 Masatora Kawano 3:51:567 Bian Tongda 3:52:018 Rhydian Cowley 3:52:019 Aku Partanen 3:52:39~ 10 Brendan Boyce 3:53:4011 José Montaña 3:53:5012 Artur Brzozowski 3:54:08~ 13 Jorge Ruiz 3:55:30~14 Matej Tóth 3:56:2315 José Leyver Ojeda 3:56:53~ 16 Quentin Rew 3:57:33~17 Máté Helebrandt 3:57:53~ 18 Diego Pinzón 3:57:5419 Andrés Chocho 3:59:03~>~ 20 Bence Venyercsán 3:59:0521 Wang Qin 3:59:3522 Dzmitry Dziubin 4:00:2523 Andrea Agrusti 4:01:1024 Marius Cocioran 4:01:4325 Maryan Zakalnytskyy 4:02:5326 Jarkko Kinnunen 4:04:28>27 Jhonatan Amores 4:05:4728 Luo Yadong 4:06:1729 Alex Wright 4:06:20~ 30 Hayato Katsuki 4:06:3231 Arturas Mastianica 4:06:4332 Satoshi Maruo 4:06:4433 Carl Dohmann 4:07:1834 Bernardo Barrondo 4:08:34~~>35 Jesús Ángel García 4:10:03>36 Alexandros Papamichail 4:12:4937 Arnis Rumbenieks 4:13:33>>38 Aleksi Ojala 4:14:02>39 Valeriy Litanyuk 4:14:05>40 Marc Mundell 4:14:3741 Michal Morvay 4:15:2242 Nathaniel Seiler 4:15:3743 Vít Hlaváč 4:15:4044 Horacio Nava 4:19:00>>45 Mathieu Bilodeau 4:20:3646 Lukáš Gdula 4:33:06>>>47 Claudio Villanueva 4:53:09>>– Teodorico Caporaso ~– Rafał Augustyn – Håvard Haukenes – Luis Manuel Corchete – Gurpreet Singh – Ivan Banzeruk >>– Luis Ángel Sánchez ~~~– Isaac Palma ~– Yohann Diniz – Marco De Luca – Ruslans Smolonskis ~>>> TR 54.7.5– Érick Barrondo ~~~~ TR 54.7.5

References