So far, India has got only two quotas in athletics for the Paris Olympics and both of them have been received through Priyanka and Akshdeep.
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There is still more than a year left for the Olympics 2024, but good news has started coming for India. This news has come from the track of athletics, where India’s performance has shown improvement in the last few years and India’s representation has increased on a large scale. this representation now Paris 2024 I will also see because two athletes of India have qualified for the next Olympics and World Championships. In the men’s category of the 20 kilometer race walking event, Akshdeep Singh qualified with a national record, while Priyanka Goswami, a veteran of the event in the women’s category, has also secured a ticket to Paris.
Akshdeep Singh of Punjab won the gold medal in the 20 kilometer event on Tuesday, February 14, in the Indian Open Race Walking Competition held in Ranchi. Along with this, he made a national record and in addition to next year’s Paris Olympics, he also qualified for the World Athletics Championship to be held in Budapest, the capital of Hungary this year.
Akshdeep did amazing
22-year-old Akshdeep from Punjab created a new national record by clocking one hour, 19 minutes and 55 seconds. The previous record was in the name of Sandeep Kumar, who clocked one hour 20 minutes and 16 seconds. However, this time he was disappointed. Sandeep was nowhere near his best this time and finished seventh with a timing of 1:23:28.
The qualifying time for the men’s 20 km race walking for the World Championships to be held in Budapest in August this year and the 2024 Olympics is one hour 20 minutes 10 seconds.
Suraj Panwar of Uttarakhand finished second with a timing of 1:20:11, narrowly missing out on achieving the World Championship and Olympic qualifying times. Delhi’s Vikas Singh finished third with a timing of 1 hour 21 minutes and 8 seconds. 48 players completed this event.
Priyanka’s amazing again
At the same time, Priyanka Goswami, who holds the national record in the women’s 20 km competition, qualified for the Budapest World Championships and Paris 2024 with a time of 1 hour 28 minutes 50 seconds. She won the gold but missed out on bettering her national record of 1:28:45. He made this record in 2021. Priyanka has earlier represented the country in the Tokyo Olympics. Priyanka, 26, won the silver medal in the 10,000 meter event at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
The qualifying time for the women’s 20 km walk for both the World Championships to be held in Budapest in August and the 2024 Olympics is 1 hour 29 minutes 20 seconds. Bhavna Jat of Rajasthan finished second with a timing of 1:29:44 and Sonal Sukhwal of her state came third with a timing of 1:31:30.
first quota in athletics
Akshdeep and Priyanka are the first Indians from athletics to qualify for the 2024 Games once the qualifying period (December 31, 2022) for the Olympics 2024 begins. Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and 3000m steeplechase athlete Avinash Sable have also qualified for the World Championships, but they are yet to qualify for the 2024 Olympics.
The 2024 Olympic qualification window for individual events other than 10,000 meters running, marathon, combined events and race walking is from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.