20 kilometres Race Walk, Men

The short walk was relatively wide open with no clear favorite. The defending champion was Ivano Brugnetti (ITA) and he was back, as was the silver medalist from Athina, Francisco Fernández (ESP). Ecuador’s Jefferson Pérez, the 1996 Olympic champion and three-time world champion, was also highly considered. The pace started out slowly with half the field together at 10 km. Russia’s Valery Borchin was in a pack at 15 km., and took the lead at 16 km. But he could not shake Pérez who gamely hung on for two more kilometers. But from 18 km. to the stadium, Borchin was fresher and pulled away to win by 100 metres, Pérez getting silver, and the bronze medal going to the surprising Australian, Jared Tallent. Borchin was a survivor among the Russian race walkers, as several of them, notably Vladimir Kanaykin, Aleksey Voyevodin, and Viktor Vurayev, tested positive for EPO prior to the Olympics and were not entered the Russian team.