Priyanka Goswami and Akshdeep Singh secured a Paris Olympic quota for India in the marathon race walk mixed relay event after finishing 18th at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, Turkiye on Sunday.
Akashdeep Singh and Priyanka Goswami clocked 3:05:03 to make the cut.
Munita Prajapati and Paramjeet Singh, the other Indian team competing in the quota race, finished 35th in 3:09:58.
A new addition to race walk categories, the marathon mixed relay event will be making its Olympic debut at Paris .
The event is held in the relay format with teams, composed of one male and one female athlete, covering the full marathon distance of 42.195km in the following breakup – an initial 12.195km for the man, the next 10km for the woman, another 10km for the man and the woman covering the final 10km to the finish line.
The Antalya meet was also a Paris 2024 qualifier for the event, with 22 quotas on offer. Up to five of those 22 teams could be a second team from the same country.
Three more Paris quotas for the event will be distributed through tops list rankings later.
Indian race walkers also competed in the men’s and women’s 20km race walk events at the Antalya meet.
In the women’s 20km race walk event at Antalya, Pooja Kumawat logged the best finish among the Indians, placing 42nd with a time of 1:40:27. She was closely followed by Manju Rani, 43rd with 1:40:31, and Mokavi Muthurathinam, 44th with 1:40:33.
Ramandeep Kaur (1:42:12) finished 49th while Payal (1:42:32) came in 50th. In the women’s 20km race walk team event, India finished eighth. China, Peru and Spain clinched the podium places.
Kimberly García León of Peru won the gold medal, clocking 1:27:12 while the People’s Republic of China’s Zhenxia Ma (1:27:55) and Brazil’s Erica Sena (1:29:22) took the bronze in the individual race.
The men’s 20km event saw Servin Sebastian (1:21:39) finish 20th followed by Vikash Singh (1:21:59) at 24th, Suraj Panwar (1:24:09) in 40th position and Arshpreet Singh (1:33:39) at 66th. Ram Baboo failed to finish the race.
Peru’s Perseus Karlström (1:18:49) won the gold medal while Spain’s Paul McGrath (1:19:14) and Diego García Carrera (1:19:51) took the silver and bronze, respectively.
India finished sixth in the men’s team event, which was won by Spain. Japan and Italy completed the podium in a 15-team field.
Seven Indians have already breached the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifying standard in the men’s 20km race. Priyanka Goswami has achieved the feat in the women’s category