Japan celebrated the return to Tokyo of a premier global sporting event with a medal in a curtain-raising 35km race walk contested in gruelling conditions at the World Athletics Championships.
Despite the road race start times being moved 30 minutes earlier than scheduled, in anticipation of the heat over the opening weekend in the Japanese capital, temperatures still climbed to 30C over the course of the first morning session.
That was accompanied by stifling humidity above 90%. Canadian men’s 35km race walk winner Evan Dunfee described the race – which for him lasted almost two and a half hours – as “absolutely brutal”.
Four years after Tokyo hosted the postponed 2020 Olympics behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic, home athlete Hayato Katsuki held on to a podium place to the delight of those watching the finish inside Japan’s National Stadium on Saturday morning.
With the streets outside also lined by enthusiastic supporters as the nine-day championships began, it marked a poignant moment for the host nation after it was denied the opportunity to cheer on its athletes at the same location for its Games.
That is a lost opportunity for which the people of Japan intend to make up for over the next nine days, with close to 500,000 tickets sold and some night sessions completely sold out according to World Athletics president Lord Coe.