Priyanka Goswami, Akashdeep Singh qualify for World Championships, Paris Olympics 20km race walk
February 14, 2023
Racewalkers Priyanka Goswami and Akashdeep Singh have qualified for the 2023 World Athletics Championships and 2024 Paris Olympics after surpassing the qualifying mark in 20km racewalking in the ongoing India Open National Racewalking competiton in Ranchi on Tuesday.
Priyanka, who competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, clocked 1:28:50 seconds to surpass the qualifying standard of 1:29:20s set for the Budapest Worlds and Paris Olympics.
While qualifying for the marquee events, Uttar Pradesh’s Priyanka also came close to breaking her own national record but fell 0.05s shy of surpassing her career-best timing of 1:28.45s.
Meanwhile, Bhawana Jat missed the berth by 0.24s clocking 1:29.44s to finish the Nationals second behind Priyanka.
For Akashdeep, however, to qualify for both events, he needed a national record-breaking effort in Ranchi. He clocked 1:19.55s to become the first Indian to finish a 20km racewalk in less than 1 hour and 20 minutes. In the process, he broke the previous national record of Sandeep Kumar, who held the record at 1:20.16s and qualified for the World Championships and Paris Olympics. The qualifying mark for men’s racewalking was set at 1:20.10s.
But for Suraj Panwar it was heartbreak as he missed a Worlds and Paris Olympics berth by 0.01s for clocking 1:20.11s.
