Olympics 2024 | Indians disappoint in 20km race walk

Paris: National record holder Priyanka Goswami finished a poor 41st in the women's 20km competition while Vikash Singh and Paramjeet Singh ended at lowly 30th and 37th positions respectively in the men's event as Indian race walkers produced a disappointing performance at the Paris Olympics here on Thursday.

Priyanka, an Asian silver medallist, clocked 1 hour, 39 minutes and 55 seconds, more than a whopping 10 minutes outside her season's best of 1:29:48, to bring up the rear. Only two race walkers finished behind her.

The 28-year-old Priyanka, who has a personal best of 1:28:45, has been based in Australia since early this year after the Mission Olympic Cell approved her high-altitude training last December.

Reigning Asian Games champion Yang Jiayu of China won gold with a time of 1:25.54 while world champion Maria Perez (1:26:19) of Spain and Commonwealth gold medallist Jemima Montag (1:26:25) of Australia took the silver and bronze respectively.

The competitions were held under warm and humid conditions. When the women's event ended, the temperature rose to nearly 25 degree Celsius while humidity was more than 85 per cent throughout. Athletics competition of the Paris Olympics began on Thursday.

In the men's corresponding event, which started 30 minutes late due to rain, Vikash clocked 1 hour, 22 minutes and 36 seconds while Paramjeet crossed the finish line in 1:23:48sec in the race won by Brian Daniel Pintado (1:18:55) of Ecuador.

Caio Bonfim (1:19:09) of Brazil and reigning world champion Alvaro Martin (1:19:11) of Spain took the silver and bronze medals respectively while Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Massimo Stano (1:19:12) of Italy was fourth.

National record holder Akshdeep Singh pulled out after the 6km mark and he was seen in discomfort, holding his abdomen while bending down forward.

A team coach told PTI that Akshdeep was having fever for the last two days due to Urinary Track Infection (UTI).

"He was having fever from 30th onwards because of UTI. However, he recovered from fever yesterday," the coach said.

India was among the countries which had three full quota of athletes in the men's event but all of them could not match their personal best.

The best performance by an Indian in the Olympics was the 10th-place finish by KT Irfan in the 2012 London Games with a timing of 1:20:21.