2023 World Athletics Championships – Men's 20 kilometres walk

The men's 20 kilometres walk at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on 19 August 2023.

Summary

The skies over Budapest unloaded on the first event at these Championships drenching the 1 kilometer course just before race time. With tight turns, several athletes slipped and fell trying to compete at high speed.

From the gun, returning silver medalist Koki Ikeda went to the front, creating a gap over a pack led by Salih Korkmaz and two time defending champion Toshikazu Yamanishi. On the fifth lap, Ikeda dropped a 3:49 to open up an 8 second lead. By the half way point he had expanded that gap to 15 seconds. From that commanding lead, Ikeda began to show signs of weakness. Lap times in the low 3:50's became high 3:50's while the chase group was picking up speed. On the 15th lap, Álvaro Martín put the hammer down, dropping a 3:43 lap and pulling next to Ikeda. Martín followed that with a 3:48 crushing Ikeda's enthusiasm. Caio Bonfim, Perseus Karlström and Evan Dunfee were the next to pass Ikeda and set off in chase of Martín. Over the next three laps, Martín opened up 13 seconds over his chasers. He was able to celebrate on the final lap while Karlström was doing a 3:48 behind him to separate from Bonfim and capture silver.

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 1:20:100.

Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (CEST), was as follows:

Results

The race was started on 19 August at 10:50.

References