Tokyo | India’s Gurpreet Singh could not make it to the 50 km race walk event of the Tokyo Olympics held on Friday as he could not complete the race due to a cramp. Poland’s David Tomala won the gold while Germany’s Robert Hilbert took silver and Canada’s Ivan Dunphy the bronze.
59 runners competed in one of the toughest Olympic events. Of these, only 47 could be completed while two were disqualified. The rest could not reach the finish line.
Among those who could not reach the finish line is Gurpreet Singh of India, who served in the army. Gurpreet suffered a cramp at 35 kms due to heat and humidity above 70 per cent and was ruled out of the competition.
Gurpreet covered the distance of 35 kms in 2:55:19 hours. He was in 48th place for half the distance, but the next 10 kilometers he was overwhelmed.
Gurpreet had qualified for the event in the National Championship held in Ranchi earlier this year by clocking 3:59:42 hours. This is also his personal best time.
Tomala finished first with a timing of 3:50:08 hours. Similarly, Hilbert clocked 3:50:44 hours and Dunphy 3:50:59 to finish second.
The Olympic record for this event is 3:36:53 hours while the world record is 3:32:33.
