TOKYO: India's Gurpreet Singh dropped out of the men's 50km race walk event after competing for around 35km as he was cramping due to the gruelling heat and humidity.
At halfway point of 25km, Gurpreet was in the 49th position with the time of 2:01:54. Meanwhile, Dawid Tomala of Poland took control of the race walk at the 30km mark, and never relinquished it. In fact, he extended his lead to over three minutes at one point, though he did look in incredible discomfort as he crossed the finish line.
But soon a smile of relief replaced the pain as Dawid Tomala became the Olympic champion with timing of 3:50:08. Germany's Jonathan Hilbert clinched silver with 3:50:44 while Canada's Evan Dunfee bagged the bronze with a timing of 3:50:59.
Earlier on Thursday, India's KT Irfan, Sandeep Kumar, and Rahul had a disappointing show in the men's 20m race walk as they were not able to finish even in the top ten here at the Sapporo Odori Park on Thursday. Sandeep finished at the 23rd spot while Rahul and Irfan finished at the 47th and 52nd spots respectively.