| The 29° heat played havoc with the form chart. Of the five men who had beaten 1:20, only Suzuki managed to finish in the top 25, and he was just 12th. The Japanese record holder was the early leader, and passed 5K in 20:18, maintaining the same pace to halfway (40:34). By 15km, the leading trio were Ivanov and the first two from London 2012, Chen and Barrondo. Those three were together until just after the 18Km mark, at which point Barrondo was disqualified for “lifting”. Ivanov then went away to win by 11 seconds from Chen, covering his last quarter in 20:17. At age 20, Ivanov became the youngest ever male walks world champion. López was a clear third. All the Moscow walks started and finished in the stadium and included laps within the Luzhniki Olympic Complex along the bank of the River Moskva. In March 2019, the Russian Athletics Federation announced that Ivanov, due to deviations in his Athlete Biological Passport, would be suspended for three years with his results deleted from July 9, 2012 to August 17, 2014. He stands to lose not only his Moscow gold, but also a silver at 20Km from the European Championships. The case continues as at July 31, 2019. |
