Chandigarh, Jan 29 (PTI) National teams for both men’s and women’s will be picked during the two-day Indian Open Race Walking competition, an Olympic qualifying competition, starting here on Tuesday.

The selected teams across the two categories will compete in the inaugural Marathon Race Walking Mixed Relay to be held in Turkey in April, with top 22 teams getting automatic qualification for the Paris Olympics.

The men’s 20km event is likely to witness a tight contest between national record holder Akashdeep Singh, Asian bronze medallist Vikash Singh, Paramjeet Bisht and Suraj Panwar.

The 23-year-old Panwar from Uttarakhand, who clocked 1:20:11 to narrowly miss the Paris Olympics qualification time of 1:20:10, will be determined to improve his timing.

He said, “I will try my best to breach the Olympic Games qualification time.” Akashdeep, Vikash and Bist have already achieved Paris qualification time will be aiming to consolidate their positions.

Each national federation is entitled to send three athletes in the 20km race walk.

The qualification period for race walkers is from December 31, 2022 to June 30, 2024.

Vikash set a personal best of 1:20:05 in Japan in March 2023 to better the Paris Olympic qualification time of 1:20:10.

He won bronze at the Asian meet held in Thailand, clocking 1:21:58 to finish 27th at the Budapest World Athletics Championships.

The men’s 20km event will have 51 athletes.

While 21 athletes will jostle for top three positions in the women’s 20km, Priyanka Goswami has qualified.

Priyanka will skip the event in Chandigarh as she is preparing for the Olympics in Australia.

The men’s 35km will have 26 athletes but the women’s 35km has attracted only eight entries only.

The competition will also be organised in the U-20 boys and girls section with a distance of 10km.

Two athletes from Sri Lanka, including one female, will also compete in the 20km event.

Source: PTI News