Soumya smashes national record
Soumya Baby shattered a national record en route to winning a gold medal in the women’s 20 km event at the 5th national race walking championship in the capital on Sunday.
Soumya, originally from Kerala but representing Delhi where she serves in the CRPF, produced a blistering finish in the final lap to cross the line in 1: 31: 28.72 seconds. In doing so she beat the previous mark of 1: 31: 40.00 set by Khushbir Kaur in Taicang in 2014.
Soumya’s surge saw her overtake Kaur, who had led the field in the previous 19 laps. Kaur finished second in 1: 32: 16.96 seconds ahead of her sister Karamjit ( 1: 34: 08.60).
Soumya slashed nearly 10 minutes off her previous best time of 1: 41: 04 at the inter- state championships last year.
“I am happy to have won this race. Last year I was returning from an injury but now I am in good shape,” said Soumya. “This is the first time I am beating Khushbir. It is a very important win for me. I will go to the Commonwealth Games because of this performance, my first international tournament,” said Soumya, who also met the qualifying standard of 1: 33.00 seconds set by the AFI for the event.
Silver medalist Kaur was satisfied with her performance. “I felt pain in the final lap so I slowed down a little. But I am not worried. My goal was simply to finish under the qualification standard here and I managed to do that,” In the men’s 20km, event, K. T. Irfan pipped Manish Rawat in a battle between Olympians. Irfan clocked 1: 21: 31: 25 to claim gold ahead of Uttrarakhand’s Rawat ( 1: 23: 31.72). she said. In the men’s 20km, event, K. T. Irfan pipped Manish Rawat in a battle between Olympians. Irfan, who first put race walk on the map in India with his 10th place finish at the London Olympics, clocked 1: 21: 31: 25 to claim gold ahead of Uttrarakhand’s Rawat ( 1: 23: 31.72).
Neeraj of Haryana completed the podium with a time of 1: 21: 39.20. All three walkers finished inside the qualification standard for the Commonwealth Games of 1: 23: 00 seconds.
While Irfan was well off his national record time of 1: 20.21.00 seconds, he was confident about the future. “I was not in good form after suffering a stress fracture in my ankle in 2014. I was giving good timings but not enough to qualify for Rio. Now that I have qualified for the Commonwealth Games, I want to finish inside the 1 hour 19 minutes and 30 seconds mark. It is a difficult target but I want to try for that timing,” said Irfan.