# 2015 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 20 kilometres walk

The men's 20 kilometres walk at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 23 August.

## Summary

From the gun, the three Chinese athletes made it clear they were going to make an effort to take this home race. The effort almost worked, as the group ultimately led by Olympic bronze medalist Wang Zhen held the lead until the bell. At almost that moment, returning bronze medalist Miguel Ángel López had finally worked his way back to the lead. The strain of leading showed on Wang's face as Lopez cruised past. Lopez built upon that lead for the final lap and route back into the stadium. Canadian Benjamin Thorne set the Canadian record on his way to the bronze medal in a national record time.
A deeper story might be in who was not here. After years of the Viktor Chegin drug related cheating scandal, no Russian athlete entered the race, ending their dominance of world podiums. Recent world record setting Yusuke Suzuki also dropped out near the half way mark with a hip injury. Andrés Chocho was making an effort to challenge the leaders late into the race, but instead was invited to leave the course with a red paddle.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:
| World record | Yusuke Suzuki (JPN) | 1:16:36 | Nomi, Japan | 15 March 2015 |
| Championship record | Jefferson Pérez (ECU) | 1:17:21 | Saint-Denis, France | 23 August 2003 |
| World Leading | Yusuke Suzuki (JPN) | 1:16:36 | Nomi, Japan | 15 March 2015 |
| African record | Hatem Ghoula (TUN) | 1:19:02 | Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany | 10 May 1997 |
| Asian record | Yusuke Suzuki (JPN) | 1:16:36 | Nomi, Japan | 15 March 2015 |
| North, Central American and Caribbean record | Julio René Martínez (GUA) | 1:17:46 | Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany | 8 May 1999 |
| South American record | Jefferson Pérez (ECU) | 1:17:21 | Saint-Denis, France | 23 August 2003 |
| European record | Yohann Diniz (FRA) | 1:17:02 | Arles, France | 8 March 2015 |
| Oceanian record | Nathan Deakes (AUS) | 1:17:33 | Cixi, China | 23 April 2005 |

## Qualification standards

* Time
* 1:25:00

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| 23 August 2015 | 08:30 | Final |
All times are local times (UTC+8)

## Results

The race was started at 08:30.
| KEY: | NR | National record | PB | Personal best | SB | Seasonal best |
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Miguel Ángel López | Spain (ESP) | 1:19:14 | PB |
| | Wang Zhen | China (CHN) | 1:19:29 | |
| | Benjamin Thorne | Canada (CAN) | 1:19:57 | NR |
| 4 | Ihor Hlavan | Ukraine (UKR) | 1:20:29 | SB |
| 5 | Cai Zelin | China (CHN) | 1:20:42 | |
| 6 | Caio Bonfim | Brazil (BRA) | 1:20:44 | SB |
| 7 | Éider Arévalo | Colombia (COL) | 1:21:13 | |
| 8 | Dane Bird-Smith | Australia (AUS) | 1:21:37 | |
| 9 | Chen Ding | China (CHN) | 1:21:39 | |
| 10 | Kim Hyun-sub | South Korea (KOR) | 1:21:40 | |
| 11 | Lebogang Shange | South Africa (RSA) | 1:21:43 | NR |
| 12 | Evan Dunfee | Canada (CAN) | 1:21:48 | SB |
| 13 | Isamu Fujisawa | Japan (JPN) | 1:21:51 | |
| 14 | Inaki Gomez | Canada (CAN) | 1:21:55 | SB |
| 15 | Eder Sánchez | Mexico (MEX) | 1:21:56 | SB |
| 16 | Álvaro Martín | Spain (ESP) | 1:22:04 | |
| 17 | Quentin Rew | New Zealand (NZL) | 1:22:18 | SB |
| 18 | Hagen Pohle | Germany (GER) | 1:22:29 | |
| 19 | Massimo Stano | Italy (ITA) | 1:22:53 | |
| 20 | Giorgio Rubino | Italy (ITA) | 1:23:23 | |
| 21 | Ruslan Dmytrenko | Ukraine (UKR) | 1:23:37 | |
| 22 | José Leonardo Montaña | Colombia (COL) | 1:23:53 | |
| 23 | Dzianis Simanovich | Belarus (BLR) | 1:23:54 | |
| 24 | Tom Bosworth | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 1:23:58 | |
| 25 | Alexandros Papamichail | Greece (GRE) | 1:24:11 | |
| 26 | Jared Tallent | Australia (AUS) | 1:24:19 | |
| 27 | Federico Tontodonati | Italy (ITA) | 1:24:33 | |
| 28 | Horacio Nava | Mexico (MEX) | 1:24:40 | SB |
| 29 | Diego Garcia | Spain (ESP) | 1:24:52 | |
| 30 | Georgiy Sheiko | Kazakhstan (KAZ) | 1:24:58 | |
| 31 | Julio César Salazar | Mexico (MEX) | 1:24:58 | |
| 32 | Chris Erickson | Australia (AUS) | 1:25:15 | |
| 33 | Kévin Campion | France (FRA) | 1:25:16 | |
| 34 | Nils Brembach | Germany (GER) | 1:25:21 | |
| 35 | Gurmeet Singh | India (IND) | 1:25:22 | |
| 36 | João Vieira | Portugal (POR) | 1:25:49 | |
| 37 | Mauricio Arteaga | Ecuador (ECU) | 1:25:50 | |
| 38 | Christopher Linke | Germany (GER) | 1:26:10 | |
| 39 | Ivan Losyev | Ukraine (UKR) | 1:26:32 | |
| 40 | Anatole Ibáñez | Sweden (SWE) | 1:26:34 | |
| 41 | Chandan Singh | India (IND) | 1:26:40 | |
| 42 | Juan Manuel Cano | Argentina (ARG) | 1:27:10 | |
| 43 | Marco Antonio Rodríguez | Bolivia (BOL) | 1:27:15 | |
| 44 | Anton Kučmín | Slovakia (SVK) | 1:27:46 | |
| 45 | Choe Byeong-kwang | South Korea (KOR) | 1:28:01 | |
| 46 | Richard Vargas | Venezuela (VEN) | 1:28:18 | |
| 47 | Eiki Takahashi | Japan (JPN) | 1:28:30 | |
| 48 | José María Raymundo | Guatemala (GUA) | 1:29:01 | |
| 49 | Yerko Araya | Chile (CHI) | 1:29:12 | |
| 50 | Kenny Martín Pérez | Colombia (COL) | 1:29:31 | |
| | Pavel Chihuán | Peru (PER) | DNF | |
| | Perseus Karlström | Sweden (SWE) | DNF | |
| | Baljinder Singh | India (IND) | DNF | |
| | Yusuke Suzuki | Japan (JPN) | DNF | |
| | Erik Tysse | Norway (NOR) | DNF | |
| | Sérgio Vieira | Portugal (POR) | DNF | |
| | Byun Young-jun | South Korea (KOR) | DQ | |
| | Andrés Chocho | Ecuador (ECU) | DQ | |
| | Aliaksandr Liakhovich | Belarus (BLR) | DQ | |
| | Marius Šavelskis | Lithuania (LTU) | DQ | |
| | Alex Wright | Ireland (IRL) | DQ | |