# 1983 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 20 kilometres walk

These are the official results of the Men's 20 kilometres race walk event at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. The race was held on 7 August 1983.

## Medalists

| Gold | Ernesto Canto Mexico (MEX) |
| Silver | Jozef Pribilinec Czechoslovakia (TCH) |
| Bronze | Yevgeniy Yevsyukov Soviet Union (URS) |

## Abbreviations

* All times shown are in hours:minutes:seconds
| DNS | did not start |
| NM | no mark |
| WR | world record |
| AR | area record |
| NR | national record |
| PB | personal best |
| SB | season best |

## Records

Standing records prior to the 1983 World Athletics Championships :
| World Record | Domingo Colin (MEX) | 1:19.35 | April 27, 1980 | Cherkasy, Soviet Union |
| Event Record | New event | New event | New event | New event |
| Broken records during the 1983 World Athletics Championships |||||
| Event Record | Ernesto Canto (MEX) | 1:20.49 | August 7, 1983 | Helsinki, Finland |

## Final ranking

| Rank | Athlete | Time | Note |
| | Ernesto Canto (MEX) | 1:20:49 | |
| | Jozef Pribilinec (TCH) | 1:20:59 | |
| | Yevgeniy Yevsyukov (URS) | 1:21:08 | |
| 4 | Josep Marín (ESP) | 1:21:21 | |
| 5 | Gérard Lelièvre (FRA) | 1:21:37 | NR |
| 6 | Pavol Blažek (TCH) | 1:21:54 | |
| 7 | Maurizio Damilano (ITA) | 1:21:57 | |
| 8 | Guillaume LeBlanc (CAN) | 1:22:04 | NR |
| 9 | Raúl González (MEX) | 1:22:06 | |
| 10 | Roland Wieser (GDR) | 1:22:14 | |
| 11 | Anatoliy Gorshkov (URS) | 1:22:34 | |
| 12 | Reima Salonen (FIN) | 1:22:51 | |
| 13 | Pyotr Pochenchuk (URS) | 1:24:55 | |
| 14 | Ralf Kowalsky (GDR) | 1:25:13 | |
| 15 | Dave Smith (AUS) | 1:25:23 | |
| 16 | Enrique Vera (MEX) | 1:25:27 | |
| 17 | Alik Basriev (BUL) | 1:25:49 | |
| 18 | Carlo Mattioli (ITA) | 1:25:53 | |
| 19 | Jim Heiring (USA) | 1:25:55 | |
| 20 | Marcel Jobin (CAN) | 1:26:13 | |
| 21 | Erling Andersen (NOR) | 1:26:39 | |
| 22 | Michael Bonke (GDR) | 1:26:57 | |
| 23 | José Pinto (POR) | 1:27:10 | |
| 24 | Alessandro Pezzatini (ITA) | 1:27:15 | |
| 25 | Phil Vesty (GBR) | 1:27:20 | |
| 26 | Martial Fesselier (FRA) | 1:27:39 | |
| 27 | Roman Mrázek (TCH) | 1:27:46 | |
| 28 | Jordi Llopart (ESP) | 1:27:49 | |
| 29 | Simon Baker (AUS) | 1:28:09 | |
| 30 | Willi Sawall (AUS) | 1:28:16 | |
| 31 | Per Rasmussen (SWE) | 1:28:51 | |
| 32 | Matti Katila (FIN) | 1:29:14 | |
| 33 | Lars Ove Moen (NOR) | 1:29:16 | |
| 34 | Francisco Botonero (ESP) | 1:29:42 | |
| 35 | Abdelwahab Ferguene (ALG) | 1:29:53 | |
| 36 | Tim Lewis (USA) | 1:30:10 | |
| 37 | Roger Mills (GBR) | 1:30:25 | |
| 38 | Shemsu Hassan (ETH) | 1:30:36 | |
| 39 | Kevin Taylor (NZL) | 1:30:38 | |
| 40 | Li Guangxing (CHN) | 1:31:02 | |
| 41 | Ian McCombie (GBR) | 1:31:14 | |
| 42 | Chand Ram (IND) | 1:31:32 | |
| 43 | Jiang Shaohong (CHN) | 1:31:43 | |
| 44 | Petri Makela (FIN) | 1:32:21 | |
| 45 | Benamar Kachkouche (ALG) | 1:32:33 | |
| 46 | Takehiro Sonohara (JPN) | 1:33:45 | |
| 47 | Sergio Gutierrez (CRC) | 1:33:59 | |
| 48 | Joseph Martens (BEL) | 1:34:39 | |
| 49 | Santiago Fonseca (HON) | 1:35:07 | |
| 50 | Shane Donelly (NZL) | 1:35:21 | |
| 51 | Osvaldo Morejon (BOL) | 1:36:37 | |
| 52 | Per Nielsen (DEN) | 1:38:52 | |
| 53 | Stefano Casali (SMR) | 1:39:41 | |
| 54 | Nadarajan Rengasamy (SIN) | 1:51:35 | |
| 55 | Uaongo Areai (COK) | 2:05:13 | |
| DID NOT FINISH (DNF) ||||
| — | Marco Evoniuk (USA) | DNF | |
| — | François Lapointe (CAN) | DNF | |
| — | Keith Olsthoom (NZL) | DNF | |
| DISQUALIFIED (DSQ) ||||
| — | Bo Gustafsson (SWE) | DSQ | |
| — | Burhan Vurgun (TUR) | DSQ | |
| DID NOT START (DNS) ||||
| — | Jan Staaf (SWE) | DNS | |
| — | Zhang Fuxin (CHN) | DNS | |