Ram Baboo of India achieved the qualification standard for the men's 20km race walk at the Paris Olympics, setting a personal best time of 1 hour and 20 minutes at the Dudinska 50 Meet in Slovakia.
Baboo, who won bronze in the 35 km race walk at the Hangzhou Asian Games, secured third place in this Race Walking Tour Gold-Level event, marking the first time an Indian athlete has reached the podium in this competition. The Olympics qualification cut-off is 1:20:10. Cesar Rodriguez of Peru claimed first place with a time of 1:19:41, followed by Ecuador’s Brian Pintado with a time of 1:19:44.
At 24 years old, Baboo joins a prestigious group of Indian male race walkers who have met the qualification mark for the Olympics, including Akshdeep Singh, Suraj Panwar, Servin Sebastian, Arshpreet Singh, Paramjeet Singh Bisht, and Vikas Singh. Meanwhile, Priyanka Goswami stands as the sole female race walker to have secured qualification, achieved at last year’s National Open Race Walking Championships in Jharkhand.
However, with a limit of three athletes per country in individual track and field events at the Olympics, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) now faces the decision of selecting the representatives for the Paris Games from the pool of seven qualified race walkers.
