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The 29-year-old athlete finished 31st out of 47 runners to finish. He covered the distance in 4 hours. 6 min and 43 sec.
A total of 59 athletes started, but 10 of them did not finish and two were disqualified.
A.Mastianica lagged behind the leaders early on at 37-41, and started to pick himself up from the middle of the distance.
He was 37th after another 30km, but he outscored several rivals in the remaining kilometers and climbed to 31st.
Lithuanian Dawid Tomala, a Pole who won gold, was 16:35 behind.
Silver went to Jonathan Hilbert from Germany and bronze went to Evan Dunfee from Canada.
“First of all, I am very happy to have finished the distance. As we went through health problems, we tried to deal with the coach, we succeeded a little, but we did not solve it completely. It was tough, but I fought to the end and finished the distance. I didn’t finish the distance in Rio de Janeiro, so I was determined to cross the finish line here, whatever happens, ”said the Lithuanian runner after the finish.
As we went through health problems, we tried to deal with the coach, we succeeded a little, but we did not solve it completely.
One of the toughest Olympic competitions did not take place physically in Tokyo, but in Sapore, about 800 km to the north.
It was thought that the air temperature there could be lower, but expectations did not come true: the riders crossed the finish line when they roasted up to 32 degrees.
“It just came to our attention then. The weather was good in the morning, but 10 km before the sun started to warm up strongly, all the athletes slowed down. The climatic conditions were really difficult, we went from one cooling point to another ”, said A. Mastianica.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Participants on foot of 50 km
The situation was somewhat alleviated by the fact that the walkers stopped at the starting line at a very early hour: 5.30. Japanese time.
“The start of the 50km distance was always early in the morning, usually only around 8pm. Maybe some athletes were affected by that unusually early start, but I felt normal about it,” said the Lithuanian.
For A.Mastianica, this was her second performance at the Olympics. Five years ago, a Lithuanian did not finish the distance in Rio de Janeiro.
The Pabradė runner was the second representative of his sport from Lithuania to appear at the Tokyo Olympics.
On Thursday, Marius Žiūkas ranked 33rd in the 20km distance, and on Friday Brigita Virbalytė-Dimšienė will compete in the 20km competition.
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