Sandeep sets national record in race walk

Wednesday 22nd February 2017 08:08 EST
 

Sandeep Kumar, who hails from a farmer family in Haryana and was ranked 35th in the Rio Olympics 2016, won the 50 km men's race walk event in a time of three hours 55 minutes and 59.05 seconds in the Max Bupa National Race Walking Championship. This helped Sandeep smash his own national record and also qualify for the London World Championships to be held in August. His earlier record of 3:56:22 was set at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Taicang, China in 2014. Speaking about his victory, Sandeep said, “I come from a humble background and never thought I will be a National Race Walker and represent the country globally. “I'm very happy to have won the race by smashing my own national record and to have qualified for World Championships in London. My target is to win a medal in the Commonwealth and Asian Games next year and then to do even better in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”

Jitender Singh of Services (4:02:11.58) and Chandan Singh (4:04:18.41) won the silver and bronze respectively, and also booked their berths for the World meet whose qualification mark is 4:06:00. In the men's 20 km section, national record holder K T Irfan of the Services, who had finished 10th in Rio, won in a time of one hour 22 minutes and 43.48 seconds. His Services teammates Devender and K Ganapati won silver and bronze respectively. “This is just a start for us, I hope to perform even better in the future. This is my first national level gold medal after 2014. I have not won an international medal till now and I hope I can do it at the Asian Championships in Japan next month,” Irfan said later.

In the women's 20 km walk, Priyanka took the first place in a time of 1:37:58.32. Shanti Kumari won the silver and Rani Yadav bronze.


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