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Akshdeep Singh broke the national record in the men’s 20km race walking, clocking 1:19:39 time at the National Open Race Walking competition in Chandigarh, on Tuesday, January 30. The second-placed Suraj Pawar, who clocked 1:19:43 time, went past the Paris 2024 qualifying mark of 1:20:10, to secure an Olympic spot for India.
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After securing a spot at the Paris 2024, Akshdeep Singh had a fantastic day on track, bettering his previous national record of 1:19:55 in men’s 20km race walking, which had happened in the 2023 edition of the National Open Race Walking competition. As per the report from the Bridge, the 2024 edition is going to act as a selection tournament for the Indian athletics teams in their upcoming tournaments.
Notably, the selected teams across the two categories will head to the inaugural Marathon Race Walking Mixed Relay competition in Turkey this April. The top 22 teams from this tournament are set to receive automatic qualification spots at the Paris 2024.
Apart from Akshdeep Singh and Suraj Panwar, the two other athletes to have secured a spot for India in the 20km men’s race walking are Pramjeet Bisht and Vikas Singh, both achieving the feat at the Asian Race Walking Championships in Japan last year. But, as per the rules, a country can only send three athletes to a track and field individual Olympic event.
With that, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) will have the tough task of picking three out of the four worthy athletes to send to Paris for the 20km race walking competition at the Olympics later this year.
