18th February 2017, New Delhi:
Sandeep Kumar bettered his own timing and created a new National Record in the Men’s 50km category of the Max Bupa National Race Walking Championships 2017 held at Vinay Marg, New Delhi on Saturday, 18 February 2017.
The athlete from Haryana bagged the gold medal of the top-event of the championship with a timing of 03:55:59. In 2014, Sandeep registered India’s best performance in the 50km RW event when he recorded the timing of 03:56:22at Taicang World Cup in China.
Jitender Singh of Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) finished second with the timing of 04:02:11 and his team-mate from SSCB, Chandan Singh grabbed the bronze medal of the event clocking 04:04:18.
After his record-breaking performance, Sandeep said, “I am happy with the improvement in my timing. It was a good competition and weather was perfect for Race Walk here in Delhi.”
In the second event of the championships, the Men’s 20km RW, athletes from SSCB made a clean-sweep by winning all three medals. In a close finish, Irfan KT won the gold medal with the timing of 01:22:43.48 while Devender Singh settled for the silver clocking 01:22:43.59. Ganapati K bagged the bronze medal with the timing of 01:22:57.
In the Women’s 20km event, Priyanka Patel of ONGC finished first with 01:37:58 timing. The silver and bronze medals went to athletes from Railway Sports Promotion Board Shanti Kumari (01:38:38) and Rani Yadav (01:38:51), respectively.
The AFI’s selection committee met soon after the conclusion of the championships and selected the Indian contingent for 20km Asian Race Walking Championships 2017 to be held in Japan from March 17-18.
The athletes selected for the Asian Championships based on Saturday’s performance are- (Men) Irfan KT, Devender Singh, Ganapati K, Jai Bhagwan, Ekanath Turambh and Sunil Rathi; (Women) Priyanka Patel, Shanti Kumari and Rani Yadav.
For detailed results of Max Bupa National Race Walking Championships 2017, click here.
