# 2017 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 20 kilometres walk

The men's 20 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 2017.
The winning margin was two seconds which was also the winning margin in this event at the 2001 edition of these championships. As of 2024, these are the only two occasions where this event has been won by less than seven seconds at these championships.

## Summary

As is typical, this race started off as a pack. By five km, the pack still numbered 32, exactly half the starters, walking a leisurely (for them) 19:54. The second five km 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 15 km 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 ten km, South African Lebogang Shange came back to the group as others dropped off. By the last two km loop, the leaders Éider Arévalo (Colombia) and Sergey Shirobokov, an Authorised Neutral Athlete were in racewalking's version of a sprint finish, dropping Shange, Christopher Linke (Germany), Dane Bird-Smith (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. Nine seconds 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:
| Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date | Location |
| World | 1:16:36 | Yusuke Suzuki | JPN | 15 Mar 2015 | Nomi, Japan |
| Championship | 1:17:21 | Jefferson Pérez | ECU | 23 Aug 2003 | Saint-Denis, France |
| World leading | 1:17:54 | Wang Kaihua | CHN | 4 Mar 2017 | Huangshan, China |
| African | 1:19:02 | Hatem Ghoula | TUN | 10 May 1997 | Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany |
| Asian | 1:16:36 | Yusuke Suzuki | JPN | 15 Mar 2015 | Nomi, Japan |
| NACAC | 1:17:46 | Julio René Martínez | GUA | 8 May 1999 | Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany |
| South American | 1:17:21 | Jefferson Pérez | ECU | 23 Aug 2003 | Saint-Denis, France |
| European | 1:17:02 | Yohann Diniz | FRA | 8 Mar 2015 | Arles, France |
| Oceanian | 1:17:33 | Nathan Deakes | AUS | 23 Apr 2015 | Cixi, China |
The following records were set at the competition:
| Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date |
| Brazilian | 1:19:04 | Caio Bonfim | BRA | 13 Aug 2017 |
| South African | 1:19:18 | Lebogang Shange | RSA | 13 Aug 2017 |
| Colombian | 1:18:53 | Éider Arévalo | COL | 13 Aug 2017 |

## 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:
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Éider Arévalo | Colombia (COL) | 1:18:53 | NR |
| | Sergey Shirobokov | Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA) | 1:18:55 | |
| | Caio Bonfim | Brazil (BRA) | 1:19:04 | NR |
| 4 | Lebogang Shange | South Africa (RSA) | 1:19:18 | NR |
| 5 | Christopher Linke | Germany (GER) | 1:19:21 | |
| 6 | Dane Bird-Smith | Australia (AUS) | 1:19:28 | PB |
| 7 | Wang Kaihua | China (CHN) | 1:19:30 | |
| 8 | Álvaro Martín | Spain (ESP) | 1:19:41 | SB |
| 9 | Alberto Amezcua | Spain (ESP) | 1:19:46 | PB |
| 10 | Miguel Ángel López | Spain (ESP) | 1:19:57 | SB |
| 11 | Isamu Fujisawa | Japan (JPN) | 1:20:04 | |
| 12 | Artur Brzozowski | Poland (POL) | 1:20:33 | PB |
| 13 | Diego García | Spain (ESP) | 1:20:34 | PB |
| 14 | Eiki Takahashi | Japan (JPN) | 1:20:36 | |
| 15 | Nils Brembach | Germany (GER) | 1:20:42 | PB |
| 16 | Giorgio Rubino | Italy (ITA) | 1:20:47 | SB |
| 17 | Hagen Pohle | Germany (GER) | 1:20:53 | SB |
| 18 | Brian Pintado | Ecuador (ECU) | 1:21:17 | PB |
| 19 | Jin Xiangqian | China (CHN) | 1:21:24 | |
| 20 | Damian Błocki | Poland (POL) | 1:21:29 | PB |
| 21 | Érick Barrondo | Guatemala (GUA) | 1:21:34 | SB |
| 22 | Aliaksandr Liakhovich | Belarus (BLR) | 1:21:39 | |
| 23 | Irfan Kolothum Thodi | India (IND) | 1:21:40 | |
| 24 | Kévin Campion | France (FRA) | 1:21:46 | |
| 25 | Francesco Fortunato | Italy (ITA) | 1:22:01 | PB |
| 26 | Kim Hyun-sub | South Korea (KOR) | 1:22:08 | |
| 27 | Ruslan Dmytrenko | Ukraine (UKR) | 1:22:26 | SB |
| 28 | Mauricio Arteaga | Ecuador (ECU) | 1:22:28 | SB |
| 29 | Marius Žiūkas | Lithuania (LTU) | 1:22:38 | |
| 30 | Samuel Gathimba | Kenya (KEN) | 1:22:52 | SB |
| 31 | Choe Byeong-kwang | South Korea (KOR) | 1:22:54 | SB |
| 32 | Ivan Losev | Ukraine (UKR) | 1:23:03 | SB |
| 33 | César Rodríguez | Peru (PER) | 1:23:05 | PB |
| 34 | Wang Rui | China (CHN) | 1:23:09 | |
| 35 | Jesús Tadeo Vega | Mexico (MEX) | 1:23:10 | SB |
| 36 | Georgiy Sheiko | Kazakhstan (KAZ) | 1:23:11 | |
| 37 | Perseus Karlström | Sweden (SWE) | 1:23:36 | |
| 38 | Daisuke Matsunaga | Japan (JPN) | 1:23:39 | |
| 39 | Yerko Araya | Chile (CHI) | 1:23:46 | |
| 40 | José Alejandro Barrondo | Guatemala (GUA) | 1:23:47 | |
| 41 | Callum Wilkinson | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 1:23:54 | |
| 42 | Alexandros Papamichail | Greece (GRE) | 1:23:56 | |
| 43 | Pedro Daniel Gómez | Mexico (MEX) | 1:24:11 | |
| 44 | Anatole Ibáñez | Sweden (SWE) | 1:24:23 | SB |
| 45 | Ersin Tacir | Turkey (TUR) | 1:24:43 | |
| 46 | Juan Manuel Cano | Argentina (ARG) | 1:24:49 | |
| 47 | Manuel Esteban Soto | Colombia (COL) | 1:24:56 | |
| 48 | Matteo Giupponi | Italy (ITA) | 1:25:20 | SB |
| 49 | Dzmitry Dziubin | Belarus (BLR) | 1:25:41 | |
| 50 | Devender Singh | India (IND) | 1:25:47 | |
| 51 | Benjamin Thorne | Canada (CAN) | 1:26:56 | |
| 52 | José María Raymundo | Guatemala (GUA) | 1:27:09 | |
| 53 | Jakub Jelonek | Poland (POL) | 1:27:43 | |
| 54 | Ganapathi Krishnan | India (IND) | 1:28:32 | |
| 55 | Serhiy Budza | Ukraine (UKR) | 1:29:25 | |
| 56 | Rhydian Cowley | Australia (AUS) | 1:30:40 | |
| 57 | Kim Dae-ho | South Korea (KOR) | 1:30:41 | |
| 58 | Mert Atlı | Turkey (TUR) | 1:31:26 | |
| | Salih Korkmaz | Turkey (TUR) | DNF | |
| | Eder Sánchez | Mexico (MEX) | DNF | |
| | Simon Wachira | Kenya (KEN) | DNF | |
| | Tom Bosworth | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | DQ | 230.6(a) |
| | Alex Wright | Ireland (IRL) | DQ | 230.6(a) |
| | Richard Vargas | Venezuela (VEN) | DQ | 230.6(a) |