A 39-year-old Sparks man died during the Sierra Recon challenge on Saturday.

Joseph Axtman collapsed on the course near the base lodge at Sierra-at-Tahoe on July 14.

“He was going up a portion of the course and just collapsed,” El Dorado County sheriff’s Lt. Pete Van Arnum told Lake Tahoe News.

Medical personnel were not able to revive him at the event.

The multi-distance obstacle race is organized by the Tahoe Tri Club, not the ski resort.

Van Arnum said the victim had been competing with his wife, who had stopped earlier. She relayed to authorities that her husband had complained of chest pain in the last few months, but doctors did not find any heart problems.

An autopsy is likely to take place Tuesday.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report