Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 20 kilometres walk

The men's 20 kilometres race walk at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held through the streets of Athens with the start and finish at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 20.[1][2]

Men's 20 kilometres walk
at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
VenueAthens Olympic Stadium
Dates20 August
Competitors48 from 28 nations
Winning time1:19:40
Medalists
Ivano Brugnetti  Italy
Paquillo Fernández  Spain
Nathan Deakes  Australia

The Chinese trio of Han Yucheng, Liu Yunfeng, and Zhu Hongjun took an early lead as the race walkers had left the stadium, but their challenge never materialized. Han could not keep up with the leaders through the first lap and soon fell off the pace, leaving Liu and Zhu with a burden to defend their chances. Approaching the second and third lap, Spain's Paquillo Fernández soon joined the Chinese duo to toughen the pace and build a commanding lead over the rest of the field, followed by his teammate Juan Manuel Molina, Ivano Brugnetti, Nathan Deakes, African champion Hatem Ghoula, and overwhelming favorite Jefferson Pérez.

When Ghoula was given his first warning with a yellow card on possession at the 6k mark, the leading pack had been whittled down to eight. Halfway through the race and with only four laps to go, Fernandez, Brugnetti, and Deakes were the strongest chasers, forming a slightly tight group to decide on the medals. Perez, however, struggled to keep up the pace on the leaders by a ten-metre deficit with Zhu and 2000 Olympic silver medalist Noé Hernández following him.

Fifty minutes into the race, Brugnetti steadily turned to break away from the leading group with Fernandez and Deakes continuously chasing him to the front. While Hernandez was disqualified after the red paddle, Perez managed to bridge back to the leaders with only a few laps remaining, but eventually fell behind. This left with Brugnetti, Fernandez, and Deakes walking closely and swiftly towards the 18k mark, before the two Europeans zoomed past Deakes to gain a three-second lead going to the final lap. Brugnetti made a decisive move to put some distance ahead of Fernandez in the approach to the Olympic Stadium.

As Fernandez could not close the gap on the final stretch, a jubilant Brugnetti celebrated all the way to a superb finish, and savored his Olympic gold medal in 1:19:40, just five seconds ahead of the Spaniard. Behind the two European rivals, Deakes managed to hold on for the bronze with Perez placing to a disappointing fourth.[3][4]

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record Jefferson Pérez (ECU)1:17:21Paris, France23 August 2003
Olympic record Robert Korzeniowski (POL)1:18:59Sydney, Australia22 September 2000

No new records were set during the competition.

Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's 20 kilometres race walk, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 1:23:00 or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 1:24:30 or faster could be entered.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date Time Round
Friday, 20 August 200409:00Final

Results

Initial stage of the race
Athletes leaving the stadium
RankNameNationalityResultNotes
Ivano Brugnetti Italy1:19:40PB
Paquillo Fernández Spain1:19:45
Nathan Deakes Australia1:20:02
4Jefferson Pérez Ecuador1:20:38
5Juan Manuel Molina Spain1:20:55
6Zhu Hongjun China1:21:40
7Vladimir Andreyev Russia1:21:53
8André Höhne Germany1:21:56
9Aigars Fadejevs Latvia1:22:08SB
10João Vieira Portugal1:22:19
11Hatem Ghoula Tunisia1:22:59
12Benjamin Kuciński Poland1:23:08
13Marco Giungi Italy1:23:30
14José Alessandro Bagio Brazil1:23:33
15Takayuki Tanii Japan1:23:38
16Luke Adams Australia1:23:52
17Rolando Saquipay Ecuador1:24:07
18Omar Segura Mexico1:24:35
19Yevgeniy Misyulya Belarus1:25:10
20Timothy Seaman United States1:25:17
21Kevin Eastler United States1:25:20
22Viktor Burayev Russia1:25:36
23Ivan Trotski Belarus1:25:53
24Luis Fernando López Colombia1:26:34
25Liu Yunfeng China1:27:21
26John Nunn United States1:27:38
27Valeriy Borisov Kazakhstan1:27:39
28Gintaras Andriuškevičius Lithuania1:27:56
29Shin Il-yong South Korea1:28:02
30Gyula Dudás Hungary1:28:18
31Moussa Aouanouk Algeria1:28:38
32Matej Tóth Slovakia1:28:49
33Lee Dae-ro South Korea1:28:59
34Fedosei Ciumacenco Moldova1:29:06
35Andrey Talashko Belarus1:29:36
36Elefthérios Thanópoulos Greece1:30:15
37José David Domínguez Spain1:30:16
38Vladimir Parvatkin Russia1:31:13
39Predrag Filipović Serbia and Montenegro1:31:35
40Han Yucheng China1:32:18
41Park Chil-sung South Korea1:32:41
Alessandro Gandellini ItalyDNF
Bernardo Segura MexicoDNF
Yuki Yamazaki JapanDNF
Xavier Moreno EcuadorDSQ
Jiří Malysa Czech RepublicDSQ
Noé Hernández MexicoDSQ
Robert Heffernan IrelandDSQ

References

  1. "IAAF Athens 2004: Men's 20km Race Walk Final". Athens 2004. IAAF. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. "Athletics at the 2004 Athens Summer Games: Men's 20 kilometres Walk". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  3. Arcoleo, Laura (20 August 2004). "Italy's Baldini wins men's marathon". IAAF. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  4. Berlin, Peter (21 August 2004). "On a hot day, Brugnetti captures gold in 20-kilometer event : Italian makes short work of walk". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
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