Olympic London 2012 event report by Deborah Navarro Rosenblatt

“Wearing red, white and blue, waving our national Chilean flag and blowing my tricolour trumpet, my boyfriend and I headed to the Mall.” Research Assistant in Nutritional Epidemiology, Deborah Navarro Rosenblatt (Public Health), reports on going to see the men’s 50km race walk race on Saturday 11 August.

“I bought tickets for the men’s 50km race walk race at the last minute, after hearing that Edward Araya, a fellow Chilean, was participating. Having already signed up for  women’s football and men’s hockey, this decision was made more out of patriotic duty than enthusiasm. Expectations were low: who wants to pay to see people walking for over three hours?

After a thorough but tactful security check by a soldier, we were met by a wave of flags from across the world. All this against the backdrop of Buckingham Palace – in my opinion the most astonishing London venue. To my surprise, Chilean Araya was accompanied by athletes from other Latin American countries like Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and El Salvador so I had to spread my appreciation amongst all the  participants (while obviously giving most of it to Chile).

I was impressed by the technique, endurance and effort required of the athletes. To see the concentration, determination and passion in their faces was an incredibly memorable experience. This impressed me even more than the thought of walking a distance equivalent to that between the Mall and Gatwick in 3:36 hours, as the eventual winner, Russia’s Sergei Kirdyapkin, did, setting a new Olympic Record.

By way of context: race walkers must be in contact with the ground at all times, with the leading leg straight from the moment of first contact, on pain of disqualification.  These strict rules, coupled with the staggering heat, proved too much for Edward Araya, who agonisingly exited a few laps before the end. The image of Serbia’s Nenad Filipovic collapsing almost in front of my eyes is seared in my memory, as is the disbelief of the two disqualified Guatemalans.

Benjamin Sanchez was one of those to pull through. Tears of pain and determination streamed down his face as the injured Spanish walker, the crowd roaring him on, stumbled over the finishing line. He was one before last, but he made it.

I left part of my heart – and my voice- with these enormously determined athletes, whose dedication disproved my earlier dismissal of race walking.  For the Latin American walkers, as for me, merely experiencing London 2012, having come from so far, was unforgettable.”