Racewalker Tom Bosworth ends season early and misses British Championships after struggling to recover from coronavirus
British racewalker Tom Bosworth has revealed he had coronavirus this summer after making the decision to end his season early.
The 30-year-old, who is one of seven athletes Sportsmail is following on the road to the Tokyo Olympics, produced a positive test for Covid-19 antibodies in July after he and his fiancé Harry Dineley fell ill in March.
He has now withdrawn from this weekend's British Championships in Manchester and scrapped all further plans to compete this month.
British racewalker Tom Bosworth has revealed he had coronavirus this summer
Bosworth, who finished sixth in the 20km walk at the Rio Olympics in 2016, told Sportsmail: 'The British Championships were very much on the cards and I wanted to do a 20km in September but there is no point flogging a dead horse at this point and performing at 50 per cent.
'Thankfully I am OK now in terms of the virus, but it just a case of getting back to fitness. It has been a hard experience. A week into lockdown in March Harry got quite ill and 48 hours later I just felt awful and had to go to bed.
'I had been training really well, had just set back to back British records, and I put it down to training hard. But I quickly lost all smell and taste, had all the symptoms and was bed bound for five or six days. I had a drive-through test in May that came back negative, but the test could only tell if you had it at that time. When I had an anti-body test in July it came back positive to show I had it at some point.
'We are 11 months out from an Olympics and it is the last thing anyone would want, let alone an athlete. If any athletes get it now, the message from me is to just not push too much, just wait, because I tried pushing hard in May and by June my body was just in agony. In my experience the effects can take a long time to clear.
'I've decided it is best to call it a day on whatever this season is and restart in a few weeks for winter training.'