2017 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 50 kilometres walk

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]

Men's 50 kilometres walk
at the 2017 World Championships
VenueOlympic Stadium
Dates13 August (final)
Competitors48 from 27 nations
Winning time3:33:12
Medalists
gold medal    France
silver medal    Japan
bronze medal    Japan
← 2015
2019 →

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.

Summary

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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]

Records

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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

Qualification standard

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The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 4:06:00.[8]

Results

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The final took place on 13 August at 07:46. The results were as follows:[9]

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
  Yohann Diniz   France (FRA) 3:33:12 CR
  Hirooki Arai   Japan (JPN) 3:41:17 SB
  Kai Kobayashi   Japan (JPN) 3:41:19 PB
4 Ihor Hlavan   Ukraine (UKR) 3:41:42 SB
5 Satoshi Maruo   Japan (JPN) 3:43:03 PB
6 Máté Helebrandt   Hungary (HUN) 3:43:56 NR
7 Rafał Augustyn   Poland (POL) 3:44:18 SB
8 Robert Heffernan   Ireland (IRL) 3:44:41 SB
9 Marco De Luca   Italy (ITA) 3:45:02 SB
10 Carl Dohmann   Germany (GER) 3:45:21 PB
11 João Vieira   Portugal (POR) 3:45:28 SB
12 Quentin Rew   New Zealand (NZL) 3:46:29 NR
13 Karl Junghannß   Germany (GER) 3:47:01 PB
14 Aleksi Ojala   Finland (FIN) 3:47:20 SB
15 Evan Dunfee   Canada (CAN) 3:47:36
16 Horacio Nava   Mexico (MEX) 3:47:53 SB
17 José Ignacio Díaz   Spain (ESP) 3:48:08 PB
18 Claudio Villanueva   Ecuador (ECU) 3:49:27 PB
19 Ivan Banzeruk   Ukraine (UKR) 3:49:49
20 Jorge Armando Ruiz   Colombia (COL) 3:50:37 PB
21 José Leyver Ojeda   Mexico (MEX) 3:51:17
22 Rafał Fedaczyński   Poland (POL) 3:52:11
23 Jarkko Kinnunen   Finland (FIN) 3:55:44 SB
24 Adrian Błocki   Poland (POL) 3:55:49
25 Mathieu Bilodeau   Canada (CAN) 3:56:54 SB
26 Francisco Arcilla   Spain (ESP) 3:57:27
27 Maryan Zakalnytskyy   Ukraine (UKR) 3:57:29
28 Anders Hansson   Sweden (SWE) 3:58:00 PB
29 Park Chil-sung   South Korea (KOR) 3:59:46 SB
30 Niu Wenbin   China (CHN) 4:01:35
31 Narcis Ștefan Mihăilă   Romania (ROM) 4:02:27 PB
32 Pedro Isidro   Portugal (POR) 4:02:30
33 Ronald Quispe   Bolivia (BOL) 4:08.22 SB
Michele Antonelli   Italy (ITA) DNF
Luis Fernando López   Colombia (COL)
Dušan Majdán   Slovakia (SVK)
Arturas Mastianica   Lithuania (LTU)
Iván Pajuelo   Spain (ESP)
Yu Wei   China (CHN)
Edward Araya   Chile (CHI) DQ 230.6(a)
Andrés Chocho   Ecuador (ECU)
Alejandro Francisco Flórez   Switzerland (SUI)
Håvard Haukenes   Norway (NOR)
Dominic King   Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)
Aku Partanen   Finland (FIN)
Florin Alin Știrbu   Romania (ROM)
Omar Zepeda   Mexico (MEX)
Brendan Boyce   Ireland (IRL) DNS

References

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  1. ^ "50 Kilometres Race Walk Men − Timetable". IAAF. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  2. ^ Start list
  3. ^ Gleeson, Michael (9 August 2017). "World athletics championships 2017: Hamstring injury forces Jared Tallent out". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  4. ^ "50 Kilometres Race Walk Splits | IAAF World Championships London 2017 | iaaf.org". Archived from the original on 23 August 2017.
  5. ^ "Error 200 | World Athletics".
  6. ^ "50 Kilometres Race Walk Men – Records". IAAF. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  7. ^ "Records Set - Final" (PDF). IAAF. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  8. ^ "Qualification System and Entry Standards" (PDF). IAAF. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  9. ^ "50 Kilometres Race Walk Men − Final − Results" (PDF). IAAF. Retrieved 15 August 2017.