20 kilometres Race Walk, Men

Because of concerns over the Tokyo summer heat, the marathons and race walk events had been moved to Sapporo, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, which had also hosted the 1972 Olympic Winter Games. This change had been made even before the 2020 pandemic postponement, but Sapporo was in the middle of a heat wave, and the day of the 20 km walk was still warm.

The Japanese were looking forward to this event as Toshikazu Yamanishi was the 2019 World Champion and the favorite, with five-time national champion Eiki Takahashi also a medal favorite. Japan and China were expected to fill the podium.

Yamanishi had the early lead but China’s Wang Kaihua took over at 12 km. At 16 km Italian Massimo Stano, completely unheralded, took the lead. Stano had never won an international race before but he was never headed, finishing in 1-21:05, as the third Japanese walker, Koki Ikeda took silver and Yamanishi won the bronze.