50 kilometres Race Walk, Men

As the 50 km walk is rarely contested, it was difficult to pick favorites for this race, which was held in Sapporo rather than Tokyo, to escape the Japanese summer heat and humidity. The race started at 0530, but Sapporo was in the midst of a heat wave, and it was still very hot for a 50 km event.

The Japanese and Chinese walkers had the best marks coming into 2021 and were expected to be prominent on the podium. Form would most definitely not hold. France’s Yohann Diniz led at 5K, while China’s Luo Yadong took over the lead at 10, 15, and 20 km, and Finland’s Aku Partanen at 25 km, as the Japanese walkers were never a major factor.

Poland’s Dawid Tomala had only once before raced 50 km, as he was primarily a 20 km specialist, but he survived the heat the best of the field, moving ahead later in the race and winning gold in 3-50:08, negative splitting the race in 1-58:17 / 1-51:51. Behind Tomala the other medals went to German Jonathan Hilbert, finishing in 3-50:44, while popular Canadian walker Evan Dunfee claimed the bronze in 3-50:59.

Dunfee’s bronze medal was redemption for Rio in 2016 when he narrowly missed the podium, with Japan’s Hirooki Arai pulling ahead in the final metres. In Sapporo Dunfee battled Spain’s Marc Tur for bronze and came out ahead to mount the podium.