In Sapporo, the provisional very last Olympic race of 50 kilometers was completed today. The discipline is not in line with the values of the IOC because it has no female counterpart.
A new race-walk discipline will be introduced in Paris 2024. It will most likely be a mixed relay event.
The 50-kilometer race was won by Pole Dawid Tomala. He crossed the line after 3h50’08”, 36 seconds faster than the German Jonathan Hilbert. The bronze went to the Canadian Evan Dunfee.
To escape the summer heat of Tokyo, the organizers of the Olympic Games in 2019 had already decided to move the races to Sapporo. That’s about a thousand kilometers north of Tokyo.
FYI: Our Olympic marathon runners Hanne Verbruggen, Mieke Gorissen, Koen Naert and Bashir Abdi will also run in Sapporo this weekend.
In addition to the winner of the last Olympic racewalker race, Tomala, another racewalker made history today. This morning, 51-year-old Jesus Angel Garcia became the first athlete ever to have competed in 8 Olympics.
The Spaniard already started his Olympic career in Barcelona (1992). By comparison, today’s winner was only three years old at the time. Garcia came close to a medal a few times, but he failed to win it. In Beijing (2008) and Athens (2004) he came in 4th and 5th respectively.
