Slovakia’s Matej Toth won the 50-kilometer race walk on Friday morning in 3:40.58. Australian Jared Tallent took the silver, 18 seconds behind him. Japanese walker Hiroki Arai took bronze.
Olympics 2016: Slovakia’s Matej Toth wins gold medal in men’s 50km walk
Matej Toth outlasted the field in a grueling 3:40 race on Friday.
Bryn Lennon/Getty Images
It looked as if Tallent, the event’s defending gold medalist, had separated himself from the pack late in the race to earn his fourth Olympic medal. It would have been the first time he crossed the finish line at the Games in first place. He initially took home the silver medal in London, but was awarded gold earlier this year when 2012 winner Sergey Kirdyapkin had his win vacated for doping.
However, he couldn’t hold off a furious final five kilometers from Toth, who erased a 22-second deficit to win by a significant margin.
French world record holder Yohann Diniz broke away from the pack early and walked out of eyesight by the time the race was halfway done. He held a commanding 1:40 lead at the 25km split, but couldn’t keep that pace. He stopped outright for a rest at about 32 kilometers, allowing Canada’s Evan Dunfee to take the lead.
From there, the lead switched hands several times as the clock ticked up to the three-hour mark before Tallent broke out with approximately 10 kilometers left in the race.
Toth never let the defending champion out of his sight, and after making his move with three kilometers remaining, cruised to the finish line with a Slovakian flag draped on his shoulders.
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