Asian 20km Race Walking C’ships: Akshdeep clinches gold; Vikash, Paramjeet qualify for Paris Olympics

Nomi (Japan), March 19 : Indias Akshdeep Singh clinched the gold medal while Priyanka Goswami bagged bronze in the mens and womens categories respectively at the Asian 20km Race Walking Championships 2023, here on Sunday.In the mens 20km race walk event, national record holder Akshdeep Singh clocked a timing of 1:20:57 to finish on top of the podium.

The athlete from Punjab secured Indias second gold medal in the Asian 20km Race Walking Championships after Olympian Gurmeet Singh in 2016.South Koreas Choe Byeongkwang finished second with a timing of 1:21:20 while Chinas Wen Yongjie clocked 1:22:44 to secure the bronze medal in the mens event, an olympics.com report said.Among the other Indians, Vikash Singh and Paramjeet Bisht clocked 1:20:05 and 1:20:08, respectively, in the mens open category which saw them breach the 1:20:10 mark -- the qualification standards for both the 2023 World Championships and Paris 2024 Olympics.Notably, Akshdeep and Priyanka had already qualified for the World Championships and Paris Olympics at the National Championships earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medallist Priyanka Goswami completed her race in 1:32:27 to finish third in the womens event.Lan Gao of China won the gold medal with a timing of 1:29:25.Ayane Yanai of Japan clocked 1:0:58 to finish second ahead of the Indian athlete.With these medals, Indias overall tally in the championships rose to nine -- two gold, two silver and five bronze.

Indias Suraj Panwar and Hardeep Singh finished with timings of 1:22:31 and 1:25:38 respectively, in the mens race.Tokyo Olympian Bhawana Jat logged a time of 1:36:20 in the womens race while her compatriot Munita Prajapati finished her course in 1:33:22.Sonal Sukhwal did not start.

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