Walker Akshdeep Singh's Road To Paris 2024: Finishes Third In 20Km Race In Slovakia Meet

Akshdeep, who has already breached the Paris Olympics qualifying mark of 1 hour 20 minutes and 10 seconds, clocked 1:20:52 to finish third. His national record stands at 1:19:38.

Suraj Panwar (1:21:52) was sixth, while Parmajeet Singh Bisht (1:22:10) and Servin Sebastian (1:22:20) were seventh and ninth respectively. Vikash Singh (1:24:10) and Arshpreet Singh (1:24:23) finished at 15th and 16th respectively.

Servin was unlucky to have been pulled by an official into the penalty box just before last lap. He received two-minute penalty before resuming.

Besides Akshdeep, Vikash, Paramjeet, Suraj and Ram Baboo have also breached the Paris Olympics men's 20km race walk qualifying mark but the Athletics Federation of India will pick only three athletes for the Games.

A country can send only three athletes in a track and field event in the Paris Olympics.

Earlier, Servin Sebastian and Arshpreet Singh's were considered to have breached the Olympic qualifying mark during the National Race Walking championships in Chandigarh in January. But it is now learnt that their timings in that meet has been revised by the AFI and they are yet to qualify for Paris Olympics.