The men's 20 kilometres walk at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on 19 August 2023.
Summary The skies over Budapest unloaded on the first event at these Championships drenching the 1 kilometer course just before race time. With tight turns, several athletes slipped and fell trying to compete at high speed.
From the gun, returning silver medalist Koki Ikeda went to the front, creating a gap over a pack led by Salih Korkmaz and two-time defending champion Toshikazu Yamanishi. On the fifth lap, Ikeda dropped a 3:49 to open up an 8-second lead. By the halfway point he had expanded that gap to 15 seconds. From that commanding lead, Ikeda began to show signs of weakness. Lap times in the low 3:50's became high 3:50's while the chase group was picking up speed. On the 15th lap, Álvaro Martín put the hammer down, dropping a 3:43 lap and pulling next to Ikeda. Martín followed that with a 3:48 crushing Ikeda's enthusiasm. Caio Bonfim, Perseus Karlström and Evan Dunfee were the next to pass Ikeda and set off in chase of Martín. Over the next three laps, Martín opened up 13 seconds over his chasers. He was able to celebrate on the final lap while Karlström was doing a 3:48 behind him to separate from Bonfim and capture silver.
Records Before the competition records were as follows:
RecordAthlete & LocationDate World record1:16:36Nomi, Japan15 March 2015Championship record1:17:21Saint-Denis, France23 August 2003 World Leading1:17:47Taicang, China8 April 2023African Record1:18:23Nairobi, Kenya18 June 2021Asian Record1:16:36Nomi, Japan15 March 2015North, Central American and Caribbean record1:17:46Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany8 May 1999South American Record1:17:21Saint-Denis, France23 August 2003 European Record1:17:02Arles, France8 March 2015 Oceanian record1:17:33Cixi, China23 April 2005
The following records were set at the competition:
Record Athlete Date World Leading1:17:32Álvaro Martín 19 Aug 2023
Qualification standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 1:20:100.
Schedule The event schedule, in local time (CEST), was as follows:
Date Time Round19 August 8:50 Final
Results
The race was started on 19 August at 10:50.
Rank Name Nationality Time NotesÁlvaro Martín 1:17:32 Perseus Karlström 1:17:39 Caio Bonfim 1:17:47 4Evan Dunfee 1:18:03 5Christopher Linke 1:18:12 6Veli-Matti Partanen 1:18:22 7Brian Pintado 1:18:26 8Declan Tingay 1:18:30 9Samuel Gathimba 1:18:34 10Gabriel Bordier 1:18:59 11Francesco Fortunato 1:19:0112Yuta Koga 1:19:02 13Alberto Amezcua 1:19:28 14Rhydian Cowley 1:19:3115Koki Ikeda 1:19:4416Salih Korkmaz 1:19:49 17César Rodríguez 1:19:52 18Andrés Olivas 1:19:55 19David Hurtado 1:20:0720Jordy Jiménez 1:20:08 21Eiki Takahashi 1:20:2522Luis Henry Campos 1:20:56 23Máté Helebrandt 1:21:16 24Toshikazu Yamanishi 1:21:3925Noel Chama 1:21:5126Éider Arévalo 1:21:5527Vikash Singh 1:21:5828Serhii Svitlychnyi 1:22:28 29Zhang Jun 1:23:1330Andrea Cosi 1:23:2831José Alejandro Barrondo 1:23:3332 1:23:3533João Vieira 1:23:3734Dominik Černý 1:23:42 35Paramjeet Singh Bisht 1:24:0236Max Batista Gonçalves dos Santos 1:24:10 37Wang Zhaozhao 1:24:2338Alexandros Papamichail 1:24:26 39Diego García 1:25:1240Kyle Swan 1:26:0241Nick Christie 1:26:21 42José Eduardo Ortiz 1:26:2943 1:26:5444Niu Wenchao 1:27:2645Juan Manuel Cano 1:27:2946César Herrera 1:27:4747Akashdeep Singh 1:31:12 David Kenny Massimo Stano Marius Žiūkas
References