Hindustan Times (Patiala)

Irfan clinches title, Army athletes on top

- HT Correspond­ent n sportsdesk@hindustant­imes.com

Army athletes made a clean sweep in the men’s 20km Race Walking Championsh­ip on Saturday, with Olympian KT Irfan claiming the top spot.

His winning time of one hour 22 minutes and 43.48 seconds was nearly two minutes slower than his personal best of 1:20:21.00 seconds he had set during the 2012 London Olympics Games. However, he expressed satisfacti­on saying it was his first competitio­n of the season. “The weather was good, but there was no point pushing hard since I was confident of winning. Since the Asian meet in March is just four weeks away I have reserved my best,’’ said Irfan.

The top-three finishers were, in fact, bunched together with Irfan making a dash to the finish line in the last 20 metres. Teammate Devender Singh was second in 1:22:43.59 seconds while Ganpati K was third in 1:22.57.86.

By winning the national title, Irfan also made a comeback to the top as he had been languishin­g on the sidelines due to injuries, which forced him to miss the Rio Games.

“I wasn’t able to give my best as my training was interrupte­d by injuries,” he said, adding “I am on track. My focus this year is the world meet in August.” GURMEET SETBACK While Irfan set the pace on Saturday, another seasoned athlete Gurmeet Singh suffered a setback as he was warned thrice for running and disqualifi­ed at the 19km mark. In the women’s section, the top place went to Priyanka of ONGC in the absence of Incheon Asiad silver-medallist Khushbir Kaur. Her winning time was 1:37.58.32 seconds.

Based on the performanc­e of athletes in the event, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) will select the team for the Asian Race Walk in Japan next month.

Sandeep Kumar of Haryana improved his national mark in men’s 50km race walk, clocking 3:55.59.05 seconds.

He previous best of 3:56.22.00 was set in 2014.

On two prominent athletes, Khushbir Kaur and Manish Singh Rawat, skipping the event, chief national coach Alexander Artsybashe­v said they were unwell. “They had fever so had to skip the event,” he said.

However, AFI secretary-general CK Valson said he wasn’t aware that Khushbir and Manish were unwell. “They were in the camp in Bengaluru and were healthy. No one informed us about their illness,” he said, adding, “Only those athletes who competed here shall be considered for the Asian meet.”

In fact, the two were brand ambassador­s of the event. It is learnt that the two were told that they need not compete and should, instead, prepare for Asian meet in March.

The coach however, didn’t inform the federation of the developmen­t.

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