At the Zahoracka Dvaciatka silver-level event of the World Athletics Race Walking Tour held in Borski Mikulaz, Slovakia on Saturday, Indian record holder Akshdeep Singh finished third in the 20km race walk, while three other Indian runners also finished in the top 10.
Akshdeep, who has already cleared the Paris Olympic qualification time of 1 hour 20 minutes 10 seconds, finished third in 1 hour 20 minutes 52 seconds. His national record is 1 hour 19 minutes 38 seconds.
Suraj Panwar (1:21:52) took sixth place, while Parmarjeet Singh Bisht (1:22:10) and Selvin Sebastian (1:22:20) placed seventh and ninth respectively. Bikash Singh (1:24:10) and Arshpreet Singh (1:24:23) finished in 15th and 16th positions respectively.
Selvin was unlucky as he was dragged into the penalty box by the official just before the final lap and was given a two-minute penalty before the race resumed.
Besides Akshdeep, Bikash, Paramjeet, Suraj and Ram Babu have also qualified for the 20km race walk at the Paris Olympics, but the Athletics Federation of India will select only three athletes for the event. Each country can send only three athletes to the track and field events at the Paris Olympics.
Earlier, Selvin Sebastian and Arshpreet Singh were thought to have breached the Olympic qualification threshold at the National Race Walking Championships in Chandigarh in January, but it emerged that their times from that event had been revised by the AFI, meaning they are yet to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
