In crossing the finish line in 1:18:35 at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 on Saturday (20), Brazil's Caio Bonfim claimed gold in the 20km race walk just a week after winning silver at the 35km distance.

“Your father is a world champion,” he said to the camera afterwards, sending a message to his children: Miguel, Theo and Manoel. 

With heavy breathing and backward glances every 30 seconds on his approach to the Japan National Stadium, Bonfim overtook three contenders during the last lap to claim his title.

“I overtook the Chinese and Spanish athletes on the last lap, but I thought I was second and accelerated to try to win a medal,” he said, only learning of his win when crossing the finish line.

He threw himself on the track, wrapped in the finish line tape, the realisation of his gold medal showing through incredulous eyes.

“I lost my wedding ring in the third kilometre. I believe my wife will be OK because I won today,” he said. “The oldest of my three children, Miguel, told me he missed me. I said that my success could compensate for my absence. I am here for him and I made sure my effort was worthy of him.”

Bonfim already had two major international silver medals and two bronze, and now he owns a first global gold. 

Japan's world record-holder Toshikazu Yamanishi tops the world ranking this season and he led for much of the second half of the race, but was hit with a two-minute time penalty, taking him out of contention. Bonfim, whose strategy had been to stick with Yamanishi, then took up the lead with a few kilometres to go.

“I am very disappointed,” Yamanishi said. “I wish I had been more careful during the race. I wanted to win the gold medal, so I pushed for it. I had to go for it but that led me to disqualification. I don't know what to do now. To win in Tokyo was one of my big goals. I need to think about my next steps.”

China's Wang Zhaozhao came right after Bonfim, clocking 1:18:43 for the silver – his first World Championships medal after winning at the Asian Championships in May and claiming silver in the Asian Games in 2023. He was ranked eighth heading into the race.

“I knew I would be fighting the strongest race walkers in the world and the temperature, so I moved to a training camp in Yuanjiang in Yunnan Province for a whole month,” Wang explained. "It is a small city with a very similar climate to Tokyo. This competition was my main focus this year. This is my first big international medal, so I couldn't be happier about the result.”

Spain's Paul McGrath finished just two seconds later, clocking 1:18:45 for the bronze, his first medal at a World Championships. “A dream come true,” he said.

His pace dropped as he suffered with cramps in the final kilometre, but he held on to a podium place, climbing from seventh place in the world ranking to celebrate the second medal of the day for Spain, following Maria Perez's gold in the women's race just hours earlier.

“When the leader Toshikazu Yamanishi got disqualified, I was very scared I would get disqualified too,” he admitted. “I had two cards at that moment. I was just thinking that winning a medal is better than not winning one at all, so I calmed down, got my race technique under control, and finished with bronze. I will go for the gold next time.”

Camila Alves for World Athletics
Produced as part of the World Athletics Media Academy project