Soumya sets national record

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 18

There was a buzz in the air when Khushbir Kaur was leading the field in the women’s 20km event in the National Race Walking Championships today. The officials and athletics community wondered whether Khushbir would break her own national record, and by how much.

But the script went awry in the end as Soumya B, representing Delhi, shocked everyone as she smashed Khushbir’s national record on her way to her maiden national gold. Soumya clocked 1hr 31m 28.72s, shaving a good 11 seconds off the mark set by Khushbir (1:31:40) back in 2014.

Khushbir settled for the silver with a timing of 1:32:16.96, while Haryana’s Karamjit Kaur won the bronze medal after clocking 1:34:08.60. Soumya was stunned when she was told by the officials at the finish line that she had broken the national record. “I knew this was going to my best timing but I didn’t know that I had made a new national record. I am very happy about it,” said Soumya, who is a CRPF constable.

Khushbir was leading for most of the race but was overtaken towards the end. “I had never beaten Khushbir before. We have never competed against each other. But we train together in Bengaluru under Alexander Artsybashev,” Soumya said. Soumya’s previous best was 1:41:04. “I was clocking 1:37 during training. But I am glad that today I broke the national record,” she said.

‘Job well done’

Khushbir said she had come to the race to earn the qualification mark for the Commonwealth Games, set at 1:35:00, and was happy on achieving her goal.

“I was here to get the qualification mark which I achieved so it was not a bad day for me. My target is the Commonwealth Games, I’ll try to give my best there,” Khushbir said.

The Incheon Asian Games silver medallist added that during the race today, she felt some discomfort in her groin region muscles, which slowed her down. “I have had injury trouble in the groin and gluteus in the past. I felt something and chose not to push myself hard,” she added.

Irfan, Manish on track

In the men’s 20km field, Kerala’s Irfan KT pipped Uttarakhand’s Manish Singh Rawat to the finish line to win the gold. Both Irfan and Manish were within the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard of 1:22:00, clocking 1:21:31.25 and 1:21:31.72, respectively. Haryana’s Neeraj, who took the bronze, too made the cut with a timing of 1:21:39.20.

The result was very satisfying for Irfan and Manish, who had been struggling for a while. Irfan was slowed down by a stress fracture on his ankle, and that showed in his timing today as he was over a minute outside his national mark of 1:20:21.00 set during the 2012 London Olympics.

Manish returned to the national squad in November last year after bad form and a tiff with coach Artsybashev had forced him out. Irfan said he was happy with his timing. “It is early season. I am sure I will improve going into the Commonwealth Games. I will try to match my mark, let’s see,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is set to decide whether to send today’s winners to the Asian Championships, to be held in Nomi (Japan) next month. The athletes are reluctant to participate in the Asian meet as this will give them very little time to recover for the Commonwealth Games, to be held from April 4 to 15 in Australia. A decision in this regard will be taken on Monday.