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.[1]

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.[2]

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.[3] 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.[2]

On January 15, 2015, Kirdyapkin's results were disqualified for doping violations.[4] Most of Chegin's athletes have received similar bans. Nymark received the gold medal in a ceremony during the 2016 European Athletics Championships.[5]

Medalists edit

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

Abbreviations edit

  • 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 edit

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 edit

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

Schedule edit

Date Time Round
August 21, 2009 09:10 Final

Results edit

 
Olympic medallist Jared Tallent fell away from the top three in the final stages.
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)

References edit

General
Specific
  1. ^ Mulkeen, Jon (2009-08-09). Men's 50 Kilometres Race Walk - PREVIEW Archived 2009-08-14 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-08-25.
  2. ^ a b Mulkeen, Jon (2009-08-21). Event Report - Men's 50km Race Walk - Final Archived August 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-08-25.
  3. ^ Powell, David (2009-08-21). Kirdyapkin clinches three-for-three for coach Chegin Archived 2009-08-26 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-08-25.
  4. ^ "Информация о дисквалификации: легкая атлетика" (in Russian). Russian Anti-Doping Agency. 20 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-01-20. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  5. ^ Coldwell, Ben (8 June 2016). "Cheated athletes to receive world gold medal ceremony at European Championships". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 10 March 2020.