Kochi, Feb 9:
Hosts Kerala’s K T Neena triumphed on her maiden appearance in 10km race walk to win the gold medal in the junior girls’ section at the second National Open Race Walking Championships, here today.
After an early morning start of the men’s 50km walk, a total of 11 junior girls took the course around 7:15 am for the 10km race.
Last year’s runner-up Priyanka started on a perfect note and maintained the lead until 7km when Neena decided to increase her pace. She overtook the Punjab girl at the turning point.
There was no looking back for Neena after that as she went on to clock 51:27s in her first attempt to win the race. Priyanka retained her last year’s position clocking 52:03s while another Keralite A M Binsy finished third with 54:56s for a bronze medal.
The junior boys’ 10km race walk witnessed high drama when Haryana lad Vijay, taking part under AFI banner, was informed of his disqualification immediately after finishing the race on top (44:56s).
“There was a delay in getting the verdict from other judges at different points of the 2km course for non-availability of walkie-talkie. However, such decision (of informing the walker of his disqualification after the race) is permissible under the IAAF rules,” said S Vegiyathuman, the International Race Walking Judge from Malaysia who supervised the two-day event here.
Punjab’s Mahendra Pratap Singh, who had won the youth boys’ title in the Junior Nationals at Bangalore two months ago, received the gold medal clocking 45:01s while Shailesh Kumar (46:34s) and Manjit Singh (47:46s) won the silver and bronze respectively.
In the 50km race walk, Haryana’s Sandeep Kumar won the gold medal (4:08:54s) while Uttarakhand’s Manish Singh Rawat (4:09:38s) and Surinder Singh of Punjab (4:14:14s) clinched the silver and bronze respectively.
“I am looking for a better performance during the IAAF Race Walking World Cup at Taicang, China,” Sandeep told reporters after his triumph. (PTI)
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