National record holder Akshdeep Singh finished a creditable third in the 20km race walk event while three other Indians also ended up in the top 10 at the Zahoracka Dvadsiatka, a World Athletics Race Walking Tour silver level meet, at Borsky Mikulas in Slovakia on Saturday. (More Sports News)
Akshdeep, who has already breached the Paris Olympics qualifying mark of 1 hour 20 minutes and 10 seconds, clocked 1:20:52 to finish third. His national record stands at 1:19:38.
Suraj Panwar (1:21:52) was sixth, while Parmajeet Singh Bisht (1:22:10) and Servin Sebastian (1:22:20) were seventh and ninth respectively. Vikash Singh (1:24:10) and Arshpreet Singh (1:24:23) finished at 15th and 16th respectively.
Servin was unlucky to have been pulled by an official into the penalty box just before last lap. He received two-minute penalty before resuming.
Besides Akshdeep, Vikash, Paramjeet, Suraj and Ram Baboo have also breached the Paris Olympics men's 20km race walk qualifying mark but the Athletics Federation of India will pick only three athletes for the Games.
A country can send only three athletes in a track and field event in the Paris Olympics.
Earlier, Servin Sebastian and Arshpreet Singh's were considered to have breached the Olympic qualifying mark during the National Race Walking championships in Chandigarh in January. But it is now learnt that their timings in that meet has been revised by the AFI and they are yet to qualify for Paris Olympics.
