Alvaro Martin of Spain captured gold in the 20-kilometre race walk in the opening event of the World Athletics Championships on Saturday.
Gold medalist, Alvaro Martin of Spain at the World Athletics Championships.World Athletics ChampionshipsMartin moved into the lead with about 5km remaining to finish in one hour 17.32 seconds, the fastest time in the world this season, on the soggy 1km loop course that started and finished at picturesque Heroes’ Square.
Martin, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics and seventh at the worlds last year in Eugene, shaved nearly two seconds off his best time. Martin missed the Spanish record by 10 seconds, but the next five walkers all set national records in a contest that had 18 men dip under the 1:20 mark in one race for the first time.
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