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On Thursday, August 1, the Indian trio of Vikash Singh, Paramjeet Singh Bisht, and Akshdeep Singh finished outside of medal positions in the men’s 20km race walk event in athletics at the Paris Olympics 2024. Although the Indian race walkers are not at the top level in this sport, their performance in Paris was quite a disappointing one.
In the men’s 20km race walk, Vikash Singh was highest finisher for India in the lowly 30th place with a timing of 1 hour, 22 minutes, and 36 seconds. Meanwhile, one of his compatriots, Paramjeet Singh Bisht, got to the finish line in 37th place by clocking 1:23:48.
The national record holder in the men’s 20km race walk for India, Akshdeep Singh, was classified as a non-finisher after he pulled out of the event after the 6km distance.
Notably, the gold medal in the men’s 20km race walk went to Brian Daniel Pintado of Ecuador with a timing of 1:18:55. The Brazilian, Caio Bonfim, took the silver medal by clocking 1:19:09, while Alvaro Martin, the reigning world champion from Spain, had to settle for the bronze medal with a timing of 1:19:11.
The gold medallist from Tokyo 2020, Massimo Stano of Italy, finished in fourth place just a second behind the podium finishers.
Moreover, the best performance from India in the men’s 20km race walk at the Olympic Games happened at London 2012 where KT Irfan clocked 1:20:21, to finish in 10th place.
