Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 20 kilometres walk

Men's 20 kilometres walk at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic Athletics
Venue	Odori Park, Sapporo
Date	5 August 2021
Competitors	57 from 28 nations
Medalists
Massimo Stano   Italy Koki Ikeda   Japan Toshikazu Yamanishi   Japan
←  2016 2024  →

The men's 20 kilometres walk event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 5 August 2021 in Sapporo. ^[1] 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). ^[2] 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

Main article: Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – 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. ^{[2] [3]}

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. ^{[2] [4]} 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. ^[5]

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. ^[2]

Men's 20 km walk

Entry number: 60.

Qualification standard	No. of athletes	NOC	Nominated athletes
Entry standard – 1:21:00	3	China	Cai Zelin Wang Kaihua Zhang Jun
	3	India	Irfan Kolothum Thodi Sandeep Kumar Rahul Rohilla
	3	Italy	Francesco Fortunato Massimo Stano Federico Tontodonati
	3	Japan	Koki Ikeda Eiki Takahashi Toshikazu Yamanishi
	3	Mexico	Noel Alí Chama Andrés Olivas Jesús Tadeo Vega [6]
	3	Spain	Álvaro Martín Diego García Miguel Ángel López
	1	Australia	Dane Bird-Smith Rhydian Cowley
	2	Brazil	Caio Bonfim Matheus Corrêa
	1	Colombia	Éider Arévalo José Leonardo Montaña
	1	Ecuador	Andrés Chocho Brian Pintado
	2	France	Gabriel Bordier Kévin Campion
	2	Germany	Nils Brembach Christopher Linke [7]
	2	Great Britain	Tom Bosworth Callum Wilkinson
	2	Guatemala	José Alejandro Barrondo José Ortiz
	2	Ukraine	Ivan Losev Eduard Zabuzhenko
	0	Ireland	Alex Wright
	1	Kazakhstan	Georgiy Sheiko
	0	Kenya	Samuel Gathimba
	1	Lithuania	Marius Žiūkas
	1	ROC [Note RUS]	Vasiliy Mizinov
	1	South Africa	Wayne Snyman
	1	South Korea	Choe Byeong-kwang
	1	Sweden	Perseus Karlström
	1	Turkey	Salih Korkmaz
World ranking	1	Germany	Leo Köpp
	2	Turkey	Şahin Şenoduncu Abdulselam İmuk
	1	Ukraine	Viktor Shumik
	1	Poland	Łukasz Niedziałek
	2	Colombia	Jhon Castañeda Manuel Esteban Soto
	2	Peru	César Rodríguez Luis Henry Campos
	2	Australia	Kyle Swan Declan Tingay
	1	Belarus	Aliaksandr Liakhovich
	1	Ireland	David Kenny
	1	South Africa	Lebogang Shange
	1	Slovakia	Miroslav Úradník
	1	Brazil	Lucas Mazzo
	1	United States	Nick Christie
Total	60

Competition format and course

The event consists of a single race. ^[8]

Records

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

World record	Yusuke Suzuki  (JPN)	1:16:36	Nomi, Japan	15 March 2015
Olympic record	Chen Ding  (CHN)	1:18.46	London, United Kingdom	4 August 2012

Area	Time	Athlete	Nation
Africa ( records )	1:19:02	Hatem Ghoula	Tunisia
Asia ( records )	1:16:36 WR	Yusuke Suzuki	Japan
Europe ( records )	1:17:02	Yohann Diniz	France
North, Central America and Caribbean ( records )	1:17:46	Julio René Martínez	Guatemala
Oceania ( records )	1:17:33	Nathan Deakes	Australia
South America ( records )	1:17:21	Jefferson Pérez	Ecuador

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The men's 20 kilometres walk took place on a single day. ^[1]

Date	Time	Round
Thursday, 5 August 2021	16:30	Final

Results

^[9]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Time behind	Notes
	Massimo Stano	Italy	1:21:05
	Koki Ikeda	Japan	1:21:14	+0:09
	Toshikazu Yamanishi	Japan	1:21:28	+0:23
4	Álvaro Martín	Spain	1:21:46	+0:41
5	Christopher Linke	Germany	1:21:50	+0:45
6	Diego García	Spain	1:21:57	+0:52
7	Wang Kaihua	China	1:22:03	+0:58
8	Zhang Jun	China	1:22:16	+1:11
9	Perseus Karlström	Sweden	1:22:29	+1:24
10	Callum Wilkinson	Great Britain	1:22:38	+1:33
11	Andrés Olivas	Mexico	1:22:46	+1:41
12	Brian Pintado	Ecuador	1:22:54	+1:49
13	Caio Bonfim	Brazil	1:23:21	+2:16
14	Manuel Esteban Soto	Colombia	1:23:32	+2:27
15	Francesco Fortunato	Italy	1:23:43	+2:38
16	Kévin Campion	France	1:23:53	+2:48	SB
17	Declan Tingay	Australia	1:24:00	+2:55	PB
18	Éider Arévalo	Colombia	1:24:10	+3:05
19	David Hurtado	Ecuador	1:24:31	+3:26
20	Wayne Snyman	South Africa	1:24:33	+3:28
21	César Rodríguez	Peru	1:24:40	+3:35
22	Leo Kopp	Germany	1:24:46	+3:41
23	Sandeep Kumar	India	1:25:07	+4:02
24	Gabriel Bordier	France	1:25:23	+4:18
25	Tom Bosworth	Great Britain	1:25:57	+4:52
26	Cai Zelin	China	1:26:39	+5:34
27	Jhon Castañeda	Colombia	1:26:41	+5:36
28	Nils Brembach	Germany	1:26:45	+5:40
29	David Kenny	Ireland	1:26:54	+5:49
30	José Oswaldo Calel	Guatemala	1:26:55	+5:50
31	Miguel Ángel López	Spain	1:27:12	+6:07
32	Eiki Takahashi	Japan	1:27:29	+6:24
33	Marius Žiūkas	Lithuania	1:27:35	+6:30
34	Şahin Şenoduncu	Turkey	1:27:39	+6:34
35	Jordy Jiménez	Ecuador	1:27:52	+6:47
36	Kyle Swan	Australia	1:27:55	+6:50
37	Choe Byeong-kwang	South Korea	1:28:12	+7:07	SB
38	Noel Alí Chama	Mexico	1:28:23	+7:18
39	Georgiy Sheiko	Kazakhstan	1:28:38	+7:33
40	José Ortiz	Guatemala	1:28:57	+7:52
41	Miroslav Úradník	Slovakia	1:29:25	+8:20
42	Jesús Tadeo Vega	Mexico	1:30:37	+9:32
43	Luis Henry Campos	Peru	1:30:58	+9:53
44	Federico Tontodonati	Italy	1:31:19	+10:14
45	Aliaksandr Liakhovich	Belarus	1:31:28	+10:23
46	Matheus Correa	Brazil	1:31:47	+10:42
47	Rahul Rohilla	India	1:32:06	+11:01
48	Abdulselam İmük	Turkey	1:32:27	+11:22
49	Ivan Losev	Ukraine	1:33:26	+12:21
50	Nick Christie	United States	1:34:37	+13:32
51	Irfan Kolothum Thodi	India	1:34:41	+13:36	SB
52	Eduard Zabuzhenko	Ukraine	1:39:38	+18:33
—	Lucas Mazzo	Brazil	Did not finish
	Łukasz Niedziałek	Poland
	Salih Korkmaz	Turkey
	Vasiliy Mizinov	ROC	Disqualified
	José Alejandro Barrondo	Guatemala

References

1. "Athletics Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
2. "Qualification System – Games of the XXXI Olympiad – Athletics" (PDF). IAAF. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
3. "IAAF to follow other sports with world ranking system for athletes". BBC Sport. 7 March 2018. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
4. "Olympic qualification period suspended until 1 December 2020". World Athletics. 6 April 2020. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
5. "Olympic qualifying system to recommence for road athletes from September 2020". 28 July 2020. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
6. "Definen a los marchistas mexicanos que irán a los Tokio 2021". www.milenio.com. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
7. Alternate Athlete: Hagen Pohle, SC Potsdam, qualified by Ranking.
8. "Athletics Explanatory Guide" (PDF). Tokyo 2020. August 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
9. "Athletics – Men's 20km Race Walk – Final – Results" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 5 August 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.