Picture Credit: Twitter
Ahead of the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024, two more Indian athletes have confirmed their berth at the world stage events. Indian athletes in Priyanka Goswami and Akshdeep Singh on Monday (13 February) qualified for the 2024 Prais Olympics as well as the 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Both athletes attained automatic qualification in 20km racewalk for the world -level tournaments after qualifying at the India Open National Racewalking Competition in Ranchi. Priyanka Goswami, who was part of the Indian contingent at the 20200 Tokyo Olympics clocked 1:28:50 to surpass the qualification mark of 1:29:20 for both events.
Priyanka took to Twitter to share her joy for qualifying in the Paris Olympics. “I’m extremely delighted to have qualified for the Paris Olympics2024 and World Championship2023 in 20km Race Walk! I would also like to thank my coach @Oly_Gill and my senior @OlySKP who have always stood by me.”
Meanwhile, Akshdeep Singh bettered a record in the men’s 20km racewalk in Ranchi. He clocked 1:19:55 to become first Indian to complete a 20km racewalk in less than one hour and 20 minutes. He broke the record of Sandeep Kumar who completed the race in 1:20:16 previously.
Bhawana Jat and 21-year-old Suraj Panwar narrowly missed the qualification mark in the women’s and men’s category respectively. While Bhawana clocked 1:29:45 to finish second, Suraj clocked 1:20:11 to miss out the Olympics and World Championships mark by 0.01 seconds.