The fourth international two- day Race-Walking competition – first international sporting event in Ranchi since the Covid-induced lockdown—was inaugurated at the Morhabadi ground on Saturday.
On the first day, Sandeep Kumar of Haryana, Rahul and Priyanka Goswami of Uttar Pradesh 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 by only 36 seconds.
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 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 judges 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.
Organising Committee Member, Madhukant Pathak said that 12 women will participate in the 10 km walk of Under 20 and 24 women will participate in the 20 km and 2 women will participate in 35 km walk. A total of 46 women are among the 160 athletes registering for the competition so far. Of the 160 athletes, only 4 athletes from Jharkhand have registered. Not a single female athlete is participating from Jharkhand. The Corona test of 56 technical judges of Jharkhand was completed on Friday. SBI is playing the role of title sponsor for organising the competition.