The men's

20 kilometres walk The 20 kilometre race walk is an Olympic Games, Olympic athletics (sport), athletics event that is competed by both men and women. The racewalking event is competed as a road race. Athletes must always keep in contact with the ground and the supp ...

at the

2017 World Championships in Athletics Seventeen or 17 may refer to: * 17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japane ...

was held on a two kilometre course comprising lengths of The Mall between

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

and Admiralty Arch on 13 August.

Summary

As is typical, this race started off as a pack. By 5K, the pack still numbered 32, exactly half the starters, walking a leisurely (for them) 19:54. The second 5K was exactly the same, passed in 39:48 but the pack had worn down to 17. British champion, walking before the home crowd, accelerated the pace, dropping many off the pack. But out in front, Bosworth was given more scrutiny and earned the deadly red card disqualifying him from the race. By 15K in 59:33 (19:45), the pack was down to eight and defending champion Miguel Ángel López (Spain) was no longer one of them. Rallying from a 23 second deficit at 10K, South African

Lebogang Shange Lebogang Shange (born 1 August 1990) is a South African race walker Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to ...

came back to the group as others dropped off. By the last 2K loop, the leaders

Éider Arévalo Éider Orlando Arévalo Truque (born 9 March 1993) is a Colombian racewalker. He competed in the 20 km walk at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where he placed 20th. He represented Colombia at the 2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the a ...

(Colombia) and Sergey Shirobokov, an

Authorised Neutral Athlete Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) is a capacity under which athletes can compete at international sporting competitions without representing their nations, as is standard convention under the Olympic Charter. As of August 2022, only Russian and B ...

were in racewalking's version of a sprint finish, dropping Shange,

Christopher Linke Christopher Linke (born 24 October 1988 in Potsdam) is a German race walker. He competed in the 50 km event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, finishing in 24th place. In the 20 km event at the 2016 Olympics, he finished in 5th p ...

(Germany),

Dane Bird-Smith Dane Alex Bird-Smith (born 15 July 1992) 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 br ...

(Australia), Wang Kaihua (China) and Caio Bonfim (Brazil) to fight for bronze. Arévalo broke the race open enough to get a Colombian flag from the audience, holding it around his neck as he made sure he had enough of a gap on Shirobokov, then crossing the finish line with the flag held high two seconds ahead. 9 second behind them, Bonfim had broken away from Shange to secure bronze. Arévalo, Bonfim and Shange all set national records.

Records

Before the competition records were as follows: The following records were set at the competition:

Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 1:24:00.

Results

The final took place on 13 August at 14:19. The results were as follows:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2017 World Championships in Athletics - Men's 20 kilometres walk 20 km walk Racewalking at the World Athletics Championships