Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 kilometres walk

Men's 50 kilometres walk
at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
VenueAthens Olympic Stadium
Dates27 August
Competitors54 from 29 nations
Winning time3:38:46
Medalists
   Poland
   Russia
   Russia
Athletics at the
2004 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m   men   women
200 m men women
400 m men women
800 m men women
1500 m men women
5000 m men women
10,000 m men women
100 m hurdles women
110 m hurdles men
400 m hurdles men women
3000 m
steeplechase
men
4×100 m relay men women
4×400 m relay men women
Road events
Marathon men women
20 km walk men women
50 km walk men
Field events
Long jump men women
Triple jump men women
High jump men women
Pole vault men women
Shot put men women
Discus throw men women
Javelin throw men women
Hammer throw men women
Combined events
Heptathlon women
Decathlon men
Wheelchair races

The men's 50 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 27.[1]

The race had started in the virtually empty Olympic Stadium with fifty-four walkers lining up the field. The Chinese trio of Han Yucheng, Yu Chaohong, and A Latangadasu hurtled away from the pack to take the front as they left the stadium. In the early laps, Han made a tactical move to continuously lead the Chinese walkers within five minutes, but he received his first of three warnings, fell off back to the pack, and was later disqualified after the red paddle. Ten minutes into the race, the Chinese duo were soon joined by four other walkers, Russia's world record holder Denis Nizhegorodov and his teammate Aleksey Voyevodin, 20 km bronze medalist Nathan Deakes of Australia, and defending Olympic champion Robert Korzeniowski.

Between 10 and 30k, Nizhegorodov and Korzeniowski moved to the front of the pack and stayed abreast each other through most of the race. At the halfway point, the leading group had been whittled down to four. Korzeniowski was still in the lead with the Russian duo and Deakes attempting to overtake him. While Nizhegorodov and Voyevodin created a gap as they separated from the group to gain a thirty-second advantage, it came down to a chase between Korzeniowski and Deakes to take the lead with only one hour to go. Deakes was eventually disqualified after his third warning with the red card, and Korzeniowski steadily broke away from the field to own the remaining third of the race.

At around 35k, Korzeniowski had commanded a 30-second lead over the weary Nizhegorodov and a further 22 seconds over Yu Chaohong. Walking tirelessly in fourth, Voyevodin managed to bridge back to the pack and launched a charge to strengthen his pace closely behind Yu.

Coming through the 45k mark and into the Olympic Stadium, Korzeniowski increased his lead by fifteen seconds ahead of the world record holder before storming his way at the final turn to cross the finish line for the last time in his competitive career. With a historic win, he added a fourth gold medal to his Olympic tally in 3:38:46.[2]

Five minutes behind Korzeniowski, Nizhegorodov appeared unstable on the home stretch, but had accumulated much ground to finish strong with a silver medal, before collapsing to the track in exhaustion. Meanwhile, his fast-charging teammate Voyevodin surpassed the confident Yu just outside the stadium to claim the bronze with a tremendous finish, edging the Chinese off the podium by eleven seconds.[2][3][4]

Records

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

World record  Denis Nizhegorodov (RUS) 3:35:29 Cheboksary, Russia 13 June 2004
Olympic record  Vyacheslav Ivanenko (URS) 3:38:29 Seoul, South Korea 30 September 1988

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 4:00:00 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 4:07:00 or faster could be entered.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date Time Round
Friday, 27 August 2004 07:00 Final

Results

Rank Name Nationality Result Notes
1st Robert Korzeniowski Poland 3:38:46
2nd Denis Nizhegorodov Russia 3:42:50
3rd Aleksey Voyevodin Russia 3:43:34
4 Yu Chaohong China 3:43:45
5 Jesús Angel García Spain 3:44:42 SB
6 Roman Magdziarczyk Poland 3:48:11
7 Grzegorz Sudoł Poland 3:49:09 PB
8 Santiago Pérez Spain 3:49:48 SB
9 Yuriy Andronov Russia 3:50:28
10 A Latangadasu China 3:51:55
11 Aigars Fadejevs Latvia 3:52:52
12 Jefferson Pérez Ecuador 3:53:04 NR
13 Trond Nymark Norway 3:53:20 SB
14 Peter Korčok Slovakia 3:54:22
15 Miguel Rodríguez Mexico 3:55:43
16 Yuki Yamazaki Japan 3:57:00
17 Germán Sánchez Mexico 3:58:33
18 Miloš Bátovský Slovakia 3:59:11
19 Andrei Stsepanchuk Belarus 3:59:32
20 Sergey Korepanov Kazakhstan 3:59:33
21 Eddy Riva France 4:00:25
22 David Boulanger France 4:01:32
23 Aleksandar Raković Serbia and Montenegro 4:02:06
24 Zoltán Czukor Hungary 4:03:51
25 Modris Liepinš Latvia 4:04:26
26 Sérgio Galdino Brazil 4:05:02
27 Kim Dong-young South Korea 4:05:16
28 Jani Lehtinen Finland 4:05:35
29 Craig Barrett New Zealand 4:06:48
30 Daugvinas Zujus Lithuania 4:09:41
31 Tim Berrett Canada 4:10:31
32 Curt Clausen United States 4:11:31
33 José Antonio González Spain 4:11:51
34 Jorge Costa Portugal 4:12:24
35 Philip Dunn United States 4:12:49
36 Kazimír Verkin Slovakia 4:13:11
37 Rustam Kuvatov Kazakhstan 4:13:40
38 Miloš Holuša Czech Republic 4:15:01
39 Georgios Argiropoulos Greece 4:17:25
40 Mario José dos Santos Brazil 4:20:11
41 János Tóth Hungary 4:29:33
42 Spiridon Kastanis Greece DNF
43 Denis Langlois France DNF
44 André Höhne Germany DNF
45 Luis Fernando García Guatemala DNF
46 Mario Iván Flores Mexico DNF
47 Pedro Martins Portugal DNF
48 Theodoros Stamatopoulos Greece DNF
49 Han Yucheng China DNF
50 Takayuki Tanii Japan DSQ
51 Nathan Deakes Australia DSQ
52 Andreas Erm Germany DSQ
53 Julio René Martínez Guatemala DSQ
54 Giovanni de Benedictis Italy DSQ

References

  1. "IAAF Athens 2004: Men's 50km Race Walk Final". Athens 2004. IAAF. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 Arcoleo, Laura (27 August 2004). "Olympic gold number four for Korzeniowski". IAAF. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  3. "Korzeniowski wins historic third 50km walk". Rediff.com. 27 August 2004. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  4. "Polish walker earns fourth Olympic gold". USA Today. 27 August 2004. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

External links

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