Dawid Tomala – Photo Credit: Flickr

Poland’s Dawid Tomala walked to victory in the Olympic men’s 50km race walk on a performance over the second half of the race in Sapporo. He reached the finishing line in three hours, 50 minutes and eight seconds.

Jonathan Hilbert of Germany won the silver medal while Evan Dunfee of Canada took the bronze medal.

Luo Yadong of China was leading for most of the first third of the race until the pack including Tomala caught up with him at the 20km mark.

Tomala began distancing himself from the crowd around the 30km stage. He progressively increased his lead to more than three minutes during one stage. He finally finished 36 seconds before Hilbert.

Meanwhile, world record holder and 2017 world champion, France’s 43-year-old Yohann Diniz dropped out of the race before the 30km mark. He was experiencing fatigue and back pain and said it was one competition too many for him.