After 31km of the punishing 50km race walk at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, the race leader could resist no longer. Matej Toth had to temporarily step off the one-kilometre loop course to answer a pressing call of nature.
A lesser soul might have wilted under the pressure. Not Toth.
Quite the opposite, in fact. For the 32-year-old Slovakian, the unscheduled pit-stop simply relieved the mounting physical pressure.
He quickly regained the momentum that had taken him comfortably clear of a loaded field and proceeded to pick up his pace – to such an extent that he finished with a cushion of one minute and 45 seconds.
Eight years on, Toth has generously donated the Slovak singlet and name bib from the day he made World Championships history to the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA).
“It seems strange, but I have to say that this 50km was maybe the easiest race in my whole life,” said Toth, whose dominant victory earned his country their first World Championships gold medal. “I lost maybe 25 seconds with the pit stop but it helped me. It enabled me to get more control.
“I want to keep the feeling of winning here in Beijing. I want to keep the memory of entering this beautiful stadium forever. I just hope I will get to enjoy such a special moment at least once more in my life.”
Toth got his wish at the Rio Olympics 12 months later but Beijing was a big breakthrough victory for him at the age of 32.
It came on the back of a major advancement in March that same year in the annual Dudinska 50, the 50km race walk held in the southern Slovakian spa town of Dudince, part of the World Race Walking Challenge series.
Toth had won the World Race Walking Cup 50km title in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 2010, but it took him a further four years to gain his first major championship medal. That was a 50km silver at the 2014 European Championships in Zurich, with a time of 3:36:21 – behind the world record 3:32:33 set by Frenchman Yohann Diniz.
In Dudince the following March, Toth threatened to break Diniz’s global mark – being four seconds up at 20km (1:26:51) and level at 30km (2:09:20) – before finishing in 3:34:38. That put him third on the world all-time list, behind Diniz and Russia’s Denis Nizhegorodov (3:34:14).
Buoyed by confidence from such a stunning performance on home ground, Toth attacked from virtually the start at the World Championships in Beijing, leading for more than 49km.
At 5km, he led by eight seconds from Brazil’s Mario Jose Dos Santos Jr. At 10km, he was 27 seconds clear, with Ireland’s Rob Heffernan, the 2013 champion, in second place.
The gap grew to 55 seconds at halfway, which the Slovakian reached in 1:51:17. Despite his urgent ‘comfort break’, he covered the second half in 1:49:15, gaining a further 50 seconds on the field.
Toth flew across the line in the Bird’s Nest Stadium in 3:40:32. Australia’s Jared Tallent was a distant runner-up in 3:42:17, with Japan’s Takayuki Tanii claiming bronze in 3:42.55.
For Toth, six months past his 32rd birthday, it was the culmination of more than two decades of race walking graft.
Story: World Athletics