Indian Athletics – News – National Race Walking Championships (day-1) – Gurmeet, Shanti and Karan walked away with gold

Patiala, 14 February 2013 – In yet another way to encourage the budding talent of race walkers in the country, the Athletics Federation of India introduced one more event at the national level this year—the National Race Walking Championships. 

Thanks to outstanding effort of K.T. Irfan in last year’s Summer Olympics in London, which eventually inspired many to follow the race walking across the country.
Gurmeet Singh from Railways, the silver medalist in last year’s Asian Race Walking championships at Nomi City in Japan, proved his mettle to went ahead with the men’s 20 km title in a time of 1 hr.  21 min and 17 secs.
Uttarakhand’s Chandan Singh (1:23:28) and former national champion Babu Bhai Panocha (1:24:01) filled the remaining places on the podium.
Two youngsters who made their marks at the national scene in recent times—Shanti Kumari and Karan Rathi—clinched the junior titles in their respective divisions.

Punjab’s Shanti led a three member field right from the start to win in 51:32 well ahead of her nearest rival Priyanka (Haryana, 54:58). Madya Pradesh’s Vandana was a distance third in 60:43 in girls’ 10 km event.

Haryana lad Karan Rathi maintained a family tradition in race walking as he romped home with the gold after locked in a battle with U.P. boy Krishna in the boys’ event.  Rathi timed 46:06 for his win, just 9 secs ahead of Krishna, while his state-mate Pawan Kumar got the bronze in 47:07.

Although there had been a national level road championships comprising of both running and walking races for quite some time in the past, it was the first time three international walking judges from different nations officiated the inaugural national race walking championships which commenced here this morning. 

The course at Patiala had been measured by the international course measurer Mr. Murugesan from Malaysia

/ AFI /

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