Athletics at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 20 kilometres walk

The Men's 20 km Race Walk at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR had an entry list of 34 competitors. Seven athletes were disqualified and two did not finish in the final, which was held on Thursday, 24 July 1980.

Men's 20 kilometres walk
at the Games of the XXII Olympiad
VenueCentral Lenin Stadium
Date24 July
Competitors34 from 20 nations
Winning time1:23:35.5
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Maurizio Damilano
 Italy
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Pyotr Pochenchuk
 Soviet Union
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Roland Wieser
 East Germany
← 1976
1984 →

The race occurred on a very hot and humid day in the Grand Arena of Central Lenin Stadium. The defending champion of the Montreal summer games, Daniel Bautista of Mexico, led along with Soviet Anatoly Solomin for the majority of the race. However, Bautista was disqualified less than two kilometres from the finish and Solomin a few 100 metres later. There were a total of 136 caution flags and seven disqualifications during the course of the race.[1]

In what was considered a major upset, Maurizio Damilano of Italy won the gold with a finishing time of 1-23:35.5, over a minute faster than silver medalist Pyotr Pochinchuk of Belarus, competing for the USSR. Roland Wieser took the bronze for East Germany, the country with the second highest medal total at these Olympics after the USSR.[1]

Also notable was the 18-year-old 25th place finisher, Thipsamay Chanthaphone, who was competing for Laos in its first Olympic appearance. Chanthaphone completed the 20 kilometres in 2:20:22.0, finishing during the medal ceremony almost 57 minutes after Damilano's win and 31 minutes after 24th place.[2]

Medalists edit

Gold Maurizio Damilano
  Italy
Silver Pyotr Pochenchuk
  Soviet Union
Bronze Roland Wieser
  East Germany

Results edit

RANK FINAL TIME
    Maurizio Damilano (ITA) 1:23:35.5
    Pyotr Pochynchuk (URS) 1:24:45.4
    Roland Wieser (GDR) 1:25:58.2
4.   Yevgeniy Yevsyukov (URS) 1:26:28.3
5.   Josep Marín (ESP) 1:26:45.6
6.   Raúl González (MEX) 1:27:48.6
7.   Bohdan Bułakowski (POL) 1:28:36.3
8.   Karl-Heinz Stadtmüller (GDR) 1:29:21.7
9.   Reima Salonen (FIN) 1:31:32.0
10.   Roger Mills (GBR) 1:32:37.8
11.   Giorgio Damilano (ITA) 1:33:26.2
12.   János Szálas (HUN) 1:34:10.5
13.   Alf Brandt (SWE) 1:34:44.0
14.   Pavol Blažek (TCH) 1:35:30.8
15.   Aristidis Karageorgos (GRE) 1:36:53.4
16.   Hunde Toure (ETH) 1:37:16.6
17.   Enrique Peña (COL) 1:38:00.0
18.   Ranjit Singh (IND) 1:38:27.2
19.   Ernesto Alfaro (COL) 1:42:19.7
20.   Jozef Pribilinec (TCH) 1:42:52.4
21.   Martin Toporek (AUT) 1:44:56.0
22.   Johann Siegele (AUT) 1:45:17.8
23.   Tekeste Mitiku (ETH) 1:45:45.7
24.   Stefano Casali (SMR) 1:49:21.3
25.   Thipsamay Chanthaphone (LAO) 2:20:22.0
  Lucien Faber (LUX) DNF
  Wilfried Siegele (AUT) DNF
  Anatoliy Solomin (URS) DSQ
  Daniel Bautista (MEX) DSQ
  Bo Gustafsson (SWE) DSQ
  David Smith (AUS) DSQ
  Domingo Colín (MEX) DSQ
  Werner Heyer (GDR) DSQ
  Juraj Benčík (TCH) DSQ

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Athletics at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games: Men's 20 kilometres Walk". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  2. ^ Thipsamay Chanthaphone at Sports Reference

External links edit