Olympics 2021: Gurpreet Singh fails to finish while Poland's Dawid Tomala clinches gold in the 50km race walk

Indian race walker Gurpreet Singh did not finish his 50km race walk event at the 2021 Olympics.

Amid Tokyo's scorching heat, Poland's Dawid Tomala clinched gold in the 50km racewalk event with a timing of 3:50:08. Jonathan Hilbert (Germany) and Evan Dunfee (Canada) finished second and third, clocking 3:50:44 and 3:50:59 respectively.

Dunfee bettered his run in the last few meters to get past Spaniard Marc Tur for a bronze medal finish. Tur finished fouth in 3:51:08.

Tomala clinches gold

Under grueling conditions, several athletes called it quits in the middle, while a few landed on the floor. Amidst all this, the world record in the 50km racewalk still remains intact. Yohann Diniz of France set the current record in 2014 by clocking 3:32:33 seconds.

Unfortunately, Gurpreet's name is listed at the end of the scorecard. His timing was also not marked. He ended his Tokyo journey way below his own best performance.

Gurpreet's National Race Walking Championship timing and world ranking earned him an Olympic ticket. He had clocked 3:59:42.

Gurpreet Singh fails to finish

The Indian athlete is ranked 104 in the world and qualified for the Olympics via the world ranking quota. His highest-ever ranking is 80.

Gurpreet singh ji well done. We are humans and win or loss is another part. Well done

— Kala Danda🇮🇳 (@danda_kala) August 6, 2021

Gurpreet Singh's recent performances

Gurpreet has been participating in 50km race events since 2012. He clocked 4:21:19 in Saransk, Russia in his first run. However, there has been a significant improvement in his performances in the last few years. In 2020, he clocked 4:09:44, almost 12 minutes better than his first run.

Gurpreet also bagged a silver medal in the 50km event at the seventh National Race Walking Championship.

In 2021, Gurpreet bettered his walking time and finally stepped into the three-hour mark (3:59:42). He achieved the feat at the national championship held in Ranchi.