# 2009 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 50 kilometres walk

The men's 50 kilometre walk at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics took place on August 21, 2009, on the streets of Berlin, Germany. The event started and finished at the Brandenburg Gate.
Prior to the competition, previous winners did not appear to be medal prospects: the defending world champion Nathan Deakes missed the competition due to injury, and the reigning Olympic champion Alex Schwazer had failed to finish his sole 50 km race of the season. Frenchman Yohann Diniz, as the European Champion, was expected to perform well. The Russian team of world record holder Denis Nizhegorodov, Yuriy Andronov and former world champion Sergey Kirdyapkin appeared to be the strongest. Norwegians Erik Tysse and Trond Nymark were possible medallists as were Jesús Ángel García and Jared Tallent. Zhao Chengliang, Li Lei, and Xu Faguang were suggested as candidates to win the Chinese team's first medal of the championships.
The final began in wet conditions, but Yuki Yamazaki and Luke Adams built up a considerable early lead. Tallent and Diniz caught up with them around the 5 km mark, but a large pack of walkers containing a number of contenders remained not far off the leaders. After the first hour, a six-strong pack of Nizhegorodov and Kirdyapkin, Tallent and Adams, and Yamazaki and Diniz had broken away from the rest. At the halfway point Yamazaki, after receiving a number of warnings, was disqualified and Schwazer decided to prematurely stop his own race. The remaining five stayed in contention until the 40 km mark, where Nizhegorodov pulled out, and Diniz and Adams began to drift away from the leaders. Kirdyapkin sped ahead of Tallent and Trond Nymark had a late burst and caught up with the leaders. Kirdyapkin won, almost three minutes ahead of the rest of the competition, and Nymark took second. García, with a late charge, was not far behind and won the bronze medal.
The 2005 World Champion Kirdyapkin won his second title with a world-leading 3:38:35, the second fastest time of his career after his 2005 winning walk. It marked a racewalk Championship sweep for the Russians, with all three winners being coached by Viktor Chegin. Nymark won the first World Championship medal of career with a new Norwegian record, and veteran García won the fourth medal of his career, although his last came in 2001. A number of athletes set personal bests, including fourth placed Grzegorz Sudoł, but the season's fastest walkers had not performed well with Matej Tóth and Diniz finishing in tenth and twelfth, respectively.
On January 15, 2015, Kirdyapkin's results were disqualified for doping violations. Most of Chegin's athletes have received similar bans. Nymark received the gold medal in a ceremony during the 2016 European Athletics Championships.

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Trond Nymark Norway (NOR) | Jesús Angel García Spain (ESP) | Grzegorz Sudoł Poland (POL) |

## Abbreviations

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

## Records

Prior to the competition, the following records were as follows.
| World record | Denis Nizhegorodov (RUS) | 3:34:14 | Cheboksary, Russia | 11 May 2008 |
| Championship record | Robert Korzeniowski (POL) | 3:36:03 | Paris, France | 27 August 2003 |
| World leading | Yohann Diniz (FRA) | 3:38:45 | Dudince, Slovakia | 28 March 2009 |
| African record | Hatem Ghoula (TUN) | 3:58:44 | Santa Eulària des Riu, Spain | 4 March 2007 |
| Asian record | Yu Chaohong (CHN) | 3:36:06 | Nanjing, China | 22 October 2005 |
| North American record | Raúl González (MEX) | 3:41:20 | Poděbrady, Czechoslovakia | 11 June 1978 |
| South American record | Xavier Moreno (ECU) | 3:52:07 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 28 July 2007 |
| European record | Denis Nizhegorodov (RUS) | 3:34:14 | Cheboksary, Russia | 11 May 2008 |
| Oceanian record | Nathan Deakes (AUS) | 3:35:47 | Geelong, Australia | 2 December 2006 |
No new records was set during this competition.

## Qualification standards

| Standard A | Standard B |
| 3:58:00 | 4:09:00 |

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| August 21, 2009 | 09:10 | Final |

## Results

| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Sergey Kirdyapkin | Russia (RUS) | 3:38:35 | DQ (Doping) |
| | Trond Nymark | Norway (NOR) | 3:41:16 | NR |
| | Jesús Ángel García | Spain (ESP) | 3:41:37 | SB |
| | Grzegorz Sudoł | Poland (POL) | 3:42:34 | PB |
| 4 | André Höhne | Germany (GER) | 3:43:19 | PB |
| 5 | Luke Adams | Australia (AUS) | 3:43:39 | PB |
| 6 | Jared Tallent | Australia (AUS) | 3:44:50 | SB |
| 7 | Marco De Luca | Italy (ITA) | 3:46:31 | PB |
| 8 | Jarkko Kinnunen | Finland (FIN) | 3:47:36 | PB |
| 9 | Matej Tóth | Slovakia (SVK) | 3:48:35 | |
| 10 | Xu Faguang | China (CHN) | 3:48:52 | PB |
| 11 | Yohann Diniz | France (FRA) | 3:49:03 | |
| 12 | Jesús Sánchez | Mexico (MEX) | 3:50:55 | PB |
| 13 | Donatas Škarnulis | Lithuania (LTU) | 3:50:56 | SB |
| 14 | Zhao Chengliang | China (CHN) | 3:53:06 | |
| 15 | Oleksiy Shelest | Ukraine (UKR) | 3:54:03 | PB |
| 16 | Tadas Šuškevicius | Lithuania (LTU) | 3:54:29 | PB |
| 17 | Koichiro Morioka | Japan (JPN) | 3:56:21 | |
| 18 | Horacio Nava | Mexico (MEX) | 3:56:26 | SB |
| 19 | Herve Davaux | France (FRA) | 3:57:10 | PB |
| 20 | Andreas Gustafsson | Sweden (SWE) | 3:57:53 | PB |
| 21 | Rafał Augustyn | Poland (POL) | 3:58:30 | |
| 22 | Augusto Cardoso | Portugal (POR) | 3:59:10 | SB |
| 23 | Miloš Bátovský | Slovakia (SVK) | 3:59:39 | |
| 24 | Li Lei | China (CHN) | 4:00:13 | |
| 25 | Mikel Odriozola | Spain (ESP) | 4:00:54 | |
| 26 | Cédric Houssaye | France (FRA) | 4:02:44 | SB |
| 27 | Diego Cafagna | Italy (ITA) | 4:08:04 | |
| 28 | José Alejandro Cambil | Spain (ESP) | 4:13:14 | |
| 29 | Mesías Zapata | Ecuador (ECU) | 4:15:28 | |
| 30 | Luis Fernando García | Guatemala (GUA) | 4:18:13 | SB |
| | Takayuki Tanii | Japan (JPN) | | DQ |
| | Yuki Yamazaki | Japan (JPN) | | DQ |
| | Omar Zepeda | Mexico (MEX) | | DQ |
| | Mário dos Santos | Brazil (BRA) | | DNF |
| | Marco Benavides | El Salvador (ESA) | | DNF |
| | Konstadínos Stefanópoulos | Greece (GRE) | | DNF |
| | Jamie Costin | Ireland (IRL) | | DNF |
| | Colin Griffin | Ireland (IRL) | | DNF |
| | Alex Schwazer | Italy (ITA) | | DNF |
| | Ingus Janevics | Latvia (LAT) | | DNF |
| | Konstadínos Stefanópoulos | Greece (GRE) | | DNF |
| | Erik Tysse | Norway (NOR) | | DNF |
| | Rafał Fedaczyński | Poland (POL) | | DNF |
| | António Pereira | Portugal (POR) | | DNF |
| | Yuriy Andronov | Russia (RUS) | | DNF |
| | Denis Nizhegorodov | Russia (RUS) | | DNF |
| | Nenad Filipović | Serbia (SRB) | | DNF |
Key: DNF = Did not finish, DQ = Disqualified, NR = National record, PB = Personal best, SB = Seasonal best, WL = World leading (in a given season)