Racewalker Akshdeep Singh finishes third in Slovakia meet

National record holder Akshdeep Singh secured an impressive third place in the 20km race walk at the Zahoracka Dvadsiatka in Borsky Mikulas, Slovakia, on Saturday. This event is part of the World Athletics Race Walking Tour and is classified as a silver level meet.

Akshdeep, who has already qualified for the Paris Olympics with a time better than the required 1 hour 20 minutes and 10 seconds, finished the race in 1:20:52. His national record stands at 1:19:38.

Several other Indian race walkers also performed admirably. Suraj Panwar placed sixth with a time of 1:21:52, Parmjeet Singh Bisht was seventh at 1:22:10, and Servin Sebastian came ninth, clocking 1:22:20. Vikash Singh and Arshpreet Singh finished 15th and 16th with times of 1:24:10 and 1:24:23, respectively.

Servin faced a setback when he was penalized by an official just before the final lap, resulting in a two-minute penalty before he could resume the race.

In addition to Akshdeep, Vikash, Paramjeet, Suraj, and Ram Baboo have all surpassed the Paris Olympics qualifying mark for the men's 20km race walk. However, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) will only select three athletes to compete at the Games, as Olympic regulations limit the number of participants from each country in track and field events to three.

Previously, Servin Sebastian and Arshpreet Singh were thought to have qualified for the Olympics during the National Race Walking Championships in Chandigarh in January. However, it has since been clarified that their times have been revised by the AFI, and they have not yet met the qualifying standard for the Paris Olympics.