On Friday, the lowest-ranked player, Gurjeet Singh wasn’table to complete the 50km race walk competition in the 2020 Tokyo Olympicsafter passing the 35km mark, because of cramps and the climatic conditions. Hewas ranked as the 51st player and he sat down at that mark, he had 2hrs 55 minutes and 19 seconds but he dropped out.
Firstly, he slowed down and then stopped, sitting down onthe sidelines, seeing that, the medical team reached him but there was nothingserious. The best he has done till now is 3:59:42 where he won gold in Februaryin the National Open Race Walk Championships.
The cramps and heat was the possible reason why theathlete sat down at the 35km mark. At the beginning of the match, at 5.30 AM atthe Sapporo Odori Park, the temperature was 25 degrees which increased to 31degree Celsius at the end of the match i.e. 9 AM according to the local time.The humidity was quite high at 80 per cent.
Out of 59 athletes,12 athletes were not able to finish the race and were disqualified. The winnerof the race was Poland’s Dawid Tomala and his time was 3.50.08, silver went toGermany’s Jonathan Hilbert and the bronze were achieved by Canada’s Evan Dunfee.