Not in long list submitted months back, race walker Gurpreet Singh to miss Tokyo Olympics

New Delhi, Jul 20 (Olympics news) Race walker Gurpreet Singh, who got surprise qualification for the Tokyo Olympics on the basis of world rankings, will miss the Games beginning on Friday as his name was not in the long list submitted by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), leaving him unaccredited.

It is learnt that AFI's last-minute effort to get accreditation for the 50km race walker did not work out.

The normal procedure is that a long list of probable athletes, who are in the range of making the cut for the Olympics, are submitted months before the start of Olympics to get accredited. Whoever does not actually qualify in the end is left out even if accredited.

In Gurpreet's case, his name was not in the long list as his best (3:59:42) was well below the qualifying standard of 3:50:00.

"Gurpreet's name was not in the long list submitted a few months ago and AFI's last minute effort to get him accredited did not bear fruit," a team source told PTI.

Also read: Why the Tokyo Olympics will be unlike any other in history

Gurpreet had won the National Race Walking Championships in February and his 60th place in the world rankings gave him an Olympic ticket. AFI also tried to get a late accreditation for discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur's coach Rakhi Tyagi but failed.

The AFI had named 26 athletes for the Olympics but the number is now down to 25.

The contingent will have 11 coaches, eight support staff, onn team doctor and one team leader.

News source: PTI

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