Race walker Priyanka Goswami has also already qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics as well as the 2023 World Athletics Championships.
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India’s 20km racewalkers Paramjeet Singh Bisht and Vikas Singh 19 March 2023 qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics as well as the 2023 World Championships during the Asian championship held in Nomi in Japan. Vikas and Paramjeet finished third and second respectively in the men’s open category 20 km race-walking championship. Paramjeet finished in 1:20:08 seconds whereas Vikas finished in 1:20:05 seconds. Qian Haifeng (1:19:09) of China came in first position.
The cut-off criteria for both the 2024 Paris Olympics, as well as the 2023 World Championships, is 1:20:10, which was created in August in Budapest, Hungary. Both the Indian athletes made the mark by a margin. Akshdeep is the other Indian athlete who has already qualified for both the 2023 World Athletics Championships and the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning gold in National Championships last month. He finished in 1:20:57s and clinched the gold medal. However, his finish was the fifth position overall.
Akshdeep is only the second Indian athlete to secure a gold medal after Gurmeet Singh in 2016. India had sent a total of seven racewalkers, four men and three women racewalkers in the open category, besides the two official entries. One man and one woman in the continental event. As per the game rule, a country can send their players in the open categories apart from the official ones, just to give them proper exposure. Their performance in the open category will not be considered official for the qualification.
Read more- Paris 2024: Indian athletes who have qualified for this mega event
Race walker Priyanka Goswami, by winning the National Championships last month has already qualified for the Paris Olympics 2024 as well as the World Athletics Championships 2023. She secured bronze by clocking 1:32:27 and finished fourth overall. Lan Gao of China was ahead of Priyanka. Lan Gao won the gold medal by clocking 1:29:25. Ayane Yanai of Japan secured second position by clocking 1:0:58.
Suraj Panwar clocked 1:22:31 whereas Hardeep clocked 1:22:31. They were also in the open category. Munita Ptajapati and Bhawna Jat were not able to qualify for the Olympics 2024 and World Championships 2023. They missed the qualifying mark of 1:29:20 by a big margin. Munita finished in 1:33:22 seconds and Bhawna finished in 1:36:20 seconds.
Sonal Sukhwal was the third woman in the category but did not start the race. As of now four Indian race walkers have qualified for the Paris Olympics 2024 as well as World Championships. With these medals, India’s total count for the medal is nine (two golds, two silvers, and five bronzes) at the competition.
The 15th edition race-walking championship for players representing Asian countries was held after three years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read More- Athletics, Paris Olympics 2024: Qualification Standards set for the Mega Event
