The two-day Eighth National and Fourth International Race Walking Championship concluded at the Morhabadi ground of the State Capital on Sunday.
Manish Rawat clinched Gold Medal in the 35 km walking race at the National Race Walking Competition held on Sunday whereas Ganapathi Krishnan received Silver and Vikas got the Bronze medal.
In the 50 km walk, Gurpreet Singh got the Gold medal, Ram Babu got the Silver and Sagar Joshi got the Bronze medal. In the boys category under-20, in the 10 km walk race, Vishwajit Singh got first, Paramjeet Bisht was second and Gilshan got third place.
Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister, Mithilesh Thakur expressed happiness over the successful organisation of the Walking Championship. Expecting that from the new sports policy of the State Government, players of Jharkhand will get medals in the Olympics in 2028 and 2032. On this occasion Madhukant Pathak of the Jharkhand Athletics Association, Shivendra Dubey and other people associated with the organizing committee were also present.
On the first day, Sandeep Kumar of Haryana, Rahul and Priyanka Goswami of Uttar Pradesh have qualified to play Olympic in the 20 km walk competition.
Sandeep Kumar secured his place for the Tokyo Olympics, where he took 1 hour 20 minutes 16 seconds. While Rahul took 1 hour 20 minutes 26 seconds. At the same time Priyanka Goswami qualified for the Olympics with a time of 1 hour 28 minutes 45 seconds. Vikas Kumar of Jharkhand finished fourth in this competition.
A resident of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Goswami set a new record in the race. She took 1 hour 28 minutes 45 seconds to set a new record in this event. It is also the new National record for Olympic qualification timing. Goswami missed the Olympic qualification in the International Race Walk held in Ranchi last year due to just 36 seconds of timing.
The competition being held in Ranchi has got the status of World Cup qualification and Olympic qualification from the International Association of Athletics Federations and Athletics Federation of
India. But this time not a single international player is participating. Although four foreign officials are present in the role of judge. This time, 160 athletes are participating out of which 46 are women participants in this competition apart from 14 athletes in the National camp. The event will conclude on Sunday.
Martin Scrba of Slovakia, Frederick Bianchi Pastori of Switzerland and Alexandru Nicole Stefan of Romania have reached Ranchi to play the role of the judge in the competition, but not a single foreign athlete has signed up yet. The most important reason for foreign athletes not coming is strict guidelines regarding Corona infection.