The men's 20 kilometres road run event at the 1986 World Junior Championships in Athletics was held in Athens, Greece, on 20 July.
| Gold | Tadesse Gebre | |
| Silver | Juma Mnyampanda | |
| Bronze | Negash Dube |
20 July
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left | align=left | | 1:01:32 | ||||
| align=left | align=left | 1:01:45 | |||||
| align=left | align=left | | 1:04:23 | ||||
| 4 | align=left | align=left | 1:04:52 | ||||
| 5 | align=left | align=left | 1:04:58 | ||||
| 6 | align=left | align=left |  | 1:05:01 | |||
| 7 | align=left | align=left |  | 1:05:58 | |||
| 8 | align=left | align=left | | 1:05:59 | |||
| 9 | align=left | align=left | 1:06:13 | ||||
| 10 | align=left | align=left |  | 1:06:26 | |||
| 11 | align=left | align=left | 1:07:02 | ||||
| 12 | align=left | align=left |  | 1:07:25 | |||
| 13 | align=left | align=left | | 1:07:42 | |||
| 14 | align=left | align=left |  | 1:07:55 | |||
| 15 | align=left | align=left | | 1:08:05 | |||
| 16 | align=left | align=left |  | 1:08:14 | |||
| 17 | align=left | align=left | 1:10:09 | ||||
| 18 | align=left | align=left | 1:11:35 | ||||
| 19 | align=left | align=left |  | 1:12:05 | |||
| 20 | align=left | align=left |  | 1:12:08 | |||
| 21 | align=left | align=left | 1:14:28 | ||||
| 22 | align=left | align=left | 1:15:16 | ||||
| 23 | align=left | align=left | 1:20:57 | ||||
| 24 | align=left | align=left | | 1:29:13 | |||
| align=left | align=left |  | DNF | ||||
| align=left | align=left | | DNF | ||||
| align=left | align=left |  | DNF | ||||
| align=left | align=left | | DNF |
According to an unofficial count, 28 athletes from 19 countries participated in the event.