2019 World Athletics Championships – Men's 50 kilometres walk

The men's 50 kilometres walk at the 2019 World Athletics Championships was held in Doha, Qatar, on 28–29 September 2019.[1]

Men's 50 kilometres walk
at the 2019 World Championships
Yusuke Suzuki, winner of the men's 50 kilometres walk.
VenueKhalifa International Stadium
Dates28–29 September
Competitors46 from 26 nations
Winning time4:04:20
Medalists
gold medal    Japan
silver medal    Portugal
bronze medal    Canada
← 2017
2022 →

Summary

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This race marked the eleventh world championships for João Vieira, tying his contemporary teammate Susana Feitor for the second most. Feitor was only 16 at her first appearance, Vieira was 23 at his.

Based on the previous evening's marathon, the desert heat was going to affect the outcome. This race too started at midnight in order to avoid the heat of the day in Doha, that would mean temperatures hovered around 32 °C 90 °F throughout the race. Most walkers were wary of starting too fast, only 20K world record holder Yusuke Suzuki went out fast, opening up a gap just a few minutes into the race. By 5K he had a 10 second lead over a chase pack of only four others, including the world record holder and defending champion Yohann Diniz and Olympic champion Matej Tóth, the rest of the field was 37 seconds or more back. As they were approaching 10K, Diniz decided the man who had taken his 20K world record was too serious a challenger to his title and bridged the ever growing gap. That extra effort didn't last too long before Diniz was sliding back through the field. Diniz eventually dropped out. By 15K, Suzuki had 45 seconds over Tóth and Isaac Palma, the rest of the peloton almost 1:20 back. At 20K, he had over 2 minutes as Tóth and Palma dropped back. Neither would finish. At the half way point, Suzuki had over 3 minutes against new leaders of the chase pack.

Luo Yadong and Niu Wenbin teamed up to try to bridge the gap, Luo getting barely under 3 minutes back by 30K, but by 35K Suzuki had opened up 3:34. As Luo dropped back through the field, the next racer behind Niu was Vieira, still over 4:30 back with 10K to go. Suzuki first showed signs of cracking, stopping at the water station at 44K before getting back on stride. At that point he still had two minutes on Niu, an additional minute on Vieira with the next chaser Evan Dunfee another minute back, now ahead of Luo. Niu had his second red card and was on the edge of disqualification. He couldn't push. One 2K lap later, Suzuki stopped again at the water station and again one lap later. Still with a huge lead, Suzuki struggled through the final lap while Vieira and Dunfee were applying the pressure. Both passed Niu, with Dunfee closing down his gap to Vieira. Suzuki got across the finish line first, only 39 seconds ahead of Vieira, who held off Dunfee by only 3 seconds.[2]

At age 43, Vieira became the oldest medalist. Suzuki's winning time of 4:04:20 was the slowest winning time in the event's history dating back to 1976 by almost 10 minutes. Of 46 starters, 14 dropped out and an additional four were disqualified. 35 minutes after the last competitor crossed the line, it was sunrise in Doha.

Records

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Before the competition records were as follows:[3]

Record Perf. Athlete Nat. Date Location
World 3:32:33 Yohann Diniz   FRA 15 Aug 2014 Zürich, Switzerland
Championship 3:33:12 Yohann Diniz   FRA 13 Aug 2017 London, Great Britain
World leading 3:37:43 Yohann Diniz   FRA 19 May 2019 Alytus, Lithuania
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 Érick 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

Schedule

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The event schedule, in local time (UTC+3), was as follows:[4]

Date Time Round
28 September 23:30 Final

Results

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The final was started at 23:30.[5]

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
  Yusuke Suzuki   Japan (JPN) 4:04:20
  João Vieira   Portugal (POR) 4:04:59
  Evan Dunfee   Canada (CAN) 4:05:02
4 Niu Wenbin   China (CHN) 4:05:36
5 Luo Yadong   China (CHN) 4:06:49
6 Brendan Boyce   Ireland (IRL) 4:07:46
7 Carl Dohmann   Germany (GER) 4:10:22
8 Jesús Ángel García   Spain (ESP) 4:11:28
9 Maryan Zakalnytskyy   Ukraine (UKR) 4:12:28 SB
10 Narcis Mihăilă   Romania (ROM) 4:13:56
11 Quentin Rew   New Zealand (NZL) 4:15:54
12 Ato Ibáñez   Sweden (SWE) 4:17:04
13 Rafał Augustyn   Poland (POL) 4:20:25
14 Mathieu Bilodeau   Canada (CAN) 4:21:13
15 Arturas Mastianica   Lithuania (LTU) 4:21:54
16 Michele Antonelli   Italy (ITA) 4:22:20
17 Alexandros Papamichail   Greece (GRE) 4:22:39
18 Horacio Nava   Mexico (MEX) 4:24:16
19 Marc Tur   Spain (ESP) 4:24:38
20 Jarkko Kinnunen   Finland (FIN) 4:25:36
21 Arnis Rumbenieks   Latvia (LAT) 4:28:18
22 Artur Brzozowski   Poland (POL) 4:30:17
23 Jonathan Hilbert   Germany (GER) 4:30:43
24 Marc Mundell   South Africa (RSA) 4:41:39
25 Valeriy Litanyuk   Ukraine (UKR) 4:42:18
26 Bence Venyercsán   Hungary (HUN) 4:45:04
27 Hayato Katsuki   Japan (JPN) 4:46:10
28 Rafał Sikora   Poland (POL) 4:50:08 SB
Ivan Banzeruk   Ukraine (UKR) DNF
Teodorico Caporaso   Italy (ITA)
Andrés Chocho   Ecuador (ECU)
José Ignacio Díaz   Spain (ESP)
Yohann Diniz   France (FRA)
Dzmitry Dziubin   Belarus (BLR)
Máté Helebrandt   Hungary (HUN)
Tomohiro Noda   Japan (JPN)
Isaac Palma   Mexico (MEX)
Aku Partanen   Finland (FIN)
Nathaniel Seiler   Germany (GER)
Matej Tóth   Slovakia (SVK)
Claudio Villanueva   Ecuador (ECU)
Wang Qin   China (CHN)
Cameron Corbishley   Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) DQ
Håvard Haukenes   Norway (NOR)
Dominic King   Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)
Ruslans Smolonskis   Latvia (LAT)

References

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  1. ^ "Start list" (PDF).
  2. ^ "Error 200 | World Athletics".
  3. ^ "50 Kilometres Race Walk Men – Records". IAAF. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  4. ^ "Men's 50 Kilometres Race Walk − Timetable". IAAF. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  5. ^ "50 Kilometres Race Walk Men − Final − Results" (PDF). IAAF. 29 September 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.