Men's 50 kilometres walk at the 2017 World Championships | ||||||||||
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Venue | Olympic Stadium | |||||||||
Dates | 13 August (final) | |||||||||
Competitors | 48 from 27 nations | |||||||||
Winning time | 3:33:12 | |||||||||
Medalists | ||||||||||
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Events at the 2017 World Championships | ||
---|---|---|
Track events | ||
100 m | men | women |
200 m | men | women |
400 m | men | women |
800 m | men | women |
1500 m | men | women |
5000 m | men | women |
10,000 m | men | women |
100 m hurdles | women | |
110 m hurdles | men | |
400 m hurdles | men | women |
3000 m steeplechase | men | women |
4 × 100 m relay | men | women |
4 × 400 m relay | men | women |
Road events | ||
Marathon | men | women |
20 km walk | men | women |
50 km walk | men | women |
Field events | ||
High jump | men | women |
Pole vault | men | women |
Long jump | men | women |
Triple jump | men | women |
Shot put | men | women |
Discus throw | men | women |
Hammer throw | men | women |
Javelin throw | men | women |
Combined events | ||
Heptathlon | women | |
Decathlon | men | |
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. [1] [2]
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.
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. [3]
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 had to make a quick, unplanned pit stop before the 5k mark which brought him back to the pack of some 20 competitors, but really only Horacio Nava (MEX) was able to stay with him for a short while. Again Diniz set sail solo and continued building his lead. 41 seconds at 10k, 1:32 at 15k, 2:10 at 20k, 2:59 by halfway. [4] Reminiscent of last year's Olympics, would his huge lead evaporate into another catastrophe?
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. [5]
Before the competition records were as follows: [6]
Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
World | 3:32:33 | Yohann Diniz | FRA | 15 Aug 2014 | Zürich, Switzerland |
Championship | 3:36:03 | Robert Korzeniowski | POL | 27 Aug 2003 | Saint-Denis, France |
World leading | 3:43:05 | Dementiy Cheparev | RUS | 10 Jun 2017 | Cheboksary, Russia |
African | 3:54:12 | Marc Mundell | RSA | 13 Dec 2015 | Melbourne, Australia |
Asian | 3:36:06 | Yu Chaohong | CHN | 22 Oct 2005 | Nanjing, China |
NACAC | 3:41:09 | Erick Barrondo | GUA | 23 Mar 2013 | Dudince, Slovakia |
South American | 3:42:57 | Andrés Chocho | ECU | 6 Mar 2016 | Ciudad Juárez, Mexico |
European | 3:32:33 | Yohann Diniz | FRA | 15 Aug 2014 | Zürich, Switzerland |
Oceanian | 3:35:47 | Nathan Deakes | AUS | 2 Dec 2006 | Geelong, Australia |
The following records were set at the competition: [7]
Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
Championship | 3:33:12 | Yohann Diniz | FRA | 13 Aug 2017 |
World leading | ||||
New Zealand | 3:46:29 | Quentin Rew | NZL | |
Hungarian | 3:43:56 | Máté Helebrandt | HUN |
The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 4:06:00. [8]
The final took place on 13 August at 07:46. The results were as follows: [9]
The men's 50 kilometres race walk at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held through the streets of Athens with the start and finish at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 27.
Yohann Diniz is a French race walker. He is the current world-record holder for the 50 km race, with a time of 3:32:33, and for the 50,000 metres track walk, with a time of 3:35:27.
Jared Tallent is an Australian race walker and Olympic gold medallist in the 50 km walk from London in 2012. He is a four-time Olympic medallist, three-time World Championship medallist and holds the current Olympic record in the 50 km walk.
Claire Woods, also known as Claire Tallent, is an Australian racewalker.
The men's 50 kilometre walk at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics took place on August 21, 2009, on the streets of Berlin, Germany. The event started and finished at the Brandenburg Gate.
The men's 50 kilometres race walk at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held on 11 August on a route along The Mall and Constitution Hill. The event was marred by the disqualification of all three Russian athletes due to doping violations.
The 50 kilometre race walk was an Olympic athletics event that first appeared in 1932 and made its final Olympic appearance in 2021. The racewalking event is competed as a road race. Athletes must always keep in contact with the ground and the supporting leg must remain straight until the raised leg passes it.
The Men's 50 kilometres race walk event at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held on September 3 on a loop course starting and finishing at Gukchae – bosang Memorial Park in the center of Daegu.
The men's 50 kilometres walk at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Luzhniki Stadium and Moscow streets on 14 August.
Evan Dunfee is a Canadian race walker and Olympian. An Olympic and World medallist, Dunfee first set the Canadian record in the 50 kilometres race walk at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where he placed fourth. He went on to win bronze medals at the 2019 World Athletics Championships and the 2020 Summer Olympics, which was the last time both of those competitions held the 50 km as an event.
The men's 50 kilometres race walk at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro was held on 19 August. Matej Tóth, winner of the 2015 World Championships from Slovakia won the gold medal, reigning Olympic champion Jared Tallent from Australia finished second and Japanese walker Hirooki Arai took the bronze. The winning time was 3:40:58.
Dane Alex Bird-Smith is an Australian racewalking athlete. He competes in the 20 kilometres race walk, and has a best of 1:19:28 hours for the distance, set in 2017. He competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he was the bronze medallist. Bird-Smith represented Australia at the World Championships in Athletics three times, and has appeared four times at the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships/Cup.
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Hirooki Arai is a male Japanese racewalker. He competed in the 50 kilometres walk event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China.
Rhydian Cowley is an Australian race walker born in Glen Waverley, Victoria who specialises in the 50 kilometres race walk and 20 kilometres race walk. Cowley competed in the 2013 World Championships in Moscow and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. For both of his major championship competitions, Cowley qualified in the 20 kilometres race walk. He has also competed at a Summer Universiade, five World Race Walking Cups, and a World Junior Championships. In 2021, he competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo where he finished in 8th in the men's 50 kilometres walk with a new personal best time of 3:52.01 just 113 seconds behind the eventual winner Dawid Tomala of Poland.
Australia competed at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London, Great Britain, from 4–13 August 2017.
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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.