RANCHI: Juned Khan of Haryana and Ramandeep Kaur of Punjab rewrote the men's and women's 35km race walk national records respectively, en route to winning top honours at the ninth Indian Open Race Walking Competition here on Sunday.
The 23-year-old Ramandeep clocked 3:00.04s and clipped more than 13 minutes from Priyanka Goswami's earlier national record of 3:13.19s, set in the World Athletics Race Walking Championships in Muscat last month. Goswami did not take part in the 35km event on Sunday. She had taken part in the 20km event on Saturday but could not finish the race.
Ramdeep's Punjab team-mate Manju also came inside Goswami's earlier national mark to take the silver in 3:07.49s.
In the men's 35km event, 22-year-old Juned pulled away from Ram Baboo and Chandan Singh after the 20km mark to lower the national record by five minutes, clocking 2:40.16s. Eknath Sambhaji Turambekar, who held the earlier national record of 2:45.17s, was among the four who were bunched in the lead till the 20km mark but dropped out after being second with 10km to go.
The 35km race walk event was introduced in India only last year in the wake of World Athletics' decision to do away with the 50km event after the Tokyo Olympics.
Uttarakhand's Sachin Bohra edged out Gujarat's Rohit Kumar Yadav by a mere second to win the men's U-20 10km crown with a time of 43:12s. Deepika Sharma of Rajasthan won the women's U-20 10km race with a time of 51:32s
The Results:
Men's 35km:
1. Juned Khan (Haryana) 2:40.16;
2.Ram Baboo (Uttar Pradesh) 2:41.30;
3. Chandan Singh (Uttarakhand) 2:42.02.
Women's 35km:
1. Ramandeep Kaur (Punjab) 3:00.04;
2. Manju (Punjab) 3:07.49;
3. Payal (Uttarakhand) 3:15.47.
Men U-20 10km:
1.Sachin Bohra (Uttarakhand) 43:12;
2. Rohit Kumar Yadav (Gujarat) 43:13;
3. Aditya Negi (Uttarakhand) 44:27.
Women's U-20 10km:
1. Deepika Sharma (Rajasthan) 51:32;
2. Bharti Bhadana (Haryana) 52:23;
3. Indu (Haryana) 52:40.