Akshdeep Singh, Priyanka Goswami qualify for Worlds and Olympics

Akshdeep Singh and Priyanka Goswami

Unheralded Akshdeep Singh clinched the men's 20km event gold with a stunning national record time to qualify for this year's World Championships as well as the 2024 Paris Olympics on the opening day of the National Open Race Walking Championships here on Tuesday.

Women's 20km event national record holder Priyanka Goswami also won a gold (with a time of 1:28:50) to qualify for both the World Championships and 2024 Olympics. Akshdeep, 23, who hails from Punjab's Barnala district, clocked 1 hour 19 minutes and 55 seconds to obliterate the earlier national record of 1:20:16 which was in the name of veteran Sandeep Kumar of Haryana, who finished a lowly seventh on Tuesday with a time of 1:23.28.

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Suraj Panwar of Uttarakhand was second with a time of 1:20.11, missing the World Championships and Olympics qualifying time by a whisker. Vikash Singh of Delhi was third with a time of 1:21.08 as 48 athletes completed the race.

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