The men's 20 kilometres

race walk 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 be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asse ...

at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

took place on 12 August on a route along

Pontal Pontal is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 millio ...

. Wang Zhen was the first male athletics medallist of the games. His Chinese teammate Cai Zelin was second and

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 ...

of Australia took the bronze.

Summary

Miguel Ángel López of Spain, the reigning 2015 World Champion, was among the favourites though he was not high on the world lists that year. The defending 2012 Olympic champion

Chen Ding Chen Ding (; born August 5, 1992, in Baoshan, Yunnan, China) is a Chinese racewalker who won a gold medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. He finished the race in 1:18:46, a new Olympic record. He also won a gold medal in ...

had been defeated in national competition by Wang Zhen, who was fifth on the seasonal rankings and had won the 2016 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships. Cai Zelin (fourth at the 2012 Olympics) rounded out the strong Chinese team. Japan entered a fast team, headed by the world's top three ranked walkers:

Eiki Takahashi is a male Japanese racewalker. He competed in the 20 kilometres walk event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China. On December 13, 2015, he set the Asian record for the 10,000m race walk on a track. In 2016, he was the ...

, Isamu Fujisawa and

Daisuke Matsunaga is a Japanese male racewalking athlete who competes in the 20 kilometres race walk. He holds a personal best of 1:18:53 hours. He represented his nation at the 2016 Summer Olympics and was the 2014 World Junior champion. He made his first impac ...

.senior outdoor 2016 20 Kilometres Race Walk men
IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-13. The ban of the perennially strong Russian team affected the quality of entrants. In the race,

Tom Bosworth Thomas Stewart Bosworth (born 17 January 1990) is a British two-time Olympic race walker who holds three World bests, including the World Best for the 1Mile race walk, 5:31.08. He also holds six British records, won 13 British Championship ...

of Great Britain was a leader for much of the race until Wang Zhen increased the pace and disrupted the lead pack. Neither the Olympic nor World Champion could follow and López ultimately fell to tenth overall. Wang's lead was never assailed and his compatriot Cai ended the race as silver medallist some 12 seconds behind. Australia's

outwalked home athlete Caio Bonfim to take the bronze medal, though Bonfim was rewarded with fourth and a Brazilian record.Minshull, Phil (2016-08-12)
Report: men's 20km race walk – Rio 2016 Olympic Games
IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-13. While Bosworth faded to sixth, he still left with the British national record.

Schedule

All times are

Brasília Time Time in Brazil is calculated using standard time, and the country (including its offshore islands) is divided into four standard time zones: UTC−02:00, UTC−03:00, UTC−04:00 and UTC−05:00. Time zones Fernando de Noronha time (UTC−02 ...

( UTC−3).

Records

, the existing World and Olympic records stood as follows.

Result

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics - Men's 20 kilometres walk Men's 20 kilometres walk Racewalking at the Olympics Men's events at the 2016 Summer Olympics