An Israeli medical official says a 29-year-old has died of a heat stroke suffered just after finishing a Tel Aviv marathon race.
Rescue services spokesman Zaki Heller says the runner collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, but medics were unable to resuscitate him. The race was run in 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) heat.
The man was identified as IDF as Sergeant Major Michael Michaelovitz from the town of Teneh. Michael served as a career officer in the IDF’s Oketz Unit.
Heller says 5 of the 12 other runners who collapsed from the heat have been put in a medically induced comas and are on respirators at a Tel Aviv hospital. He says medics have treated more than 50 runners at the race.
Race organizers last week postponed the full marathon (42 kilometer) race initially scheduled for Friday in anticipation of a forecast heat wave. But organizers allowed the half-marathon (21 kilometer) race to proceed.
(AP)