Indian athletes failed to leave a mark at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships held on Sunday, delivering performances that fell short of expectations ahead of the Paris Olympics scheduled for July-August.
None of the ten athletes, comprising five in each gender category, managed to produce satisfactory timings in the 20km events. Servin Sebastian emerged as the lone Indian to crack the top-20, yet his performance was notably below his previously set standards.
Ram Baboo, who recently achieved the Olympic men's 20km race walk qualification standard, was forced to exit the race early, as did Sebastian, Vikash Singh, Paramjeet Singh, and Suraj Panwar, all of whom have met the Olympics qualifying standards.
In the women's 20km race walk, none of the five Indian contenders managed to approach the Olympic cut-off timing of 1:29:20. Pooja Kumawat performed the best, finishing 42nd with a time of 1:40.27, followed closely by Manju Rani and Mokavi Muthurathinam at 43rd and 44th positions respectively.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) faces a significant challenge in selecting the Paris team from the seven male athletes who have met the Olympic qualifying standards by June.
Each national federation can only send a maximum of three athletes in the men's 20km race walk event, making the selection process even more daunting given the subpar performance witnessed on Sunday.
However, there is optimism surrounding Priyanka Goswami and Akshdeep Singh, who are expected to secure a Paris quota place in the Mixed Race Walk event later in the day.
Both athletes have already individually qualified for Paris 2024 and clinching a Mixed team spot at the Olympics would be a crowning achievement for them.Joining them in the Mixed event are Munita Prajapati and Paramjeet Singh.
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