Another race walker loses Olympics mark

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, June 6

Another race walker who had registered the Paris Olympics qualifying standard in the 20km event has lost his qualifying mark. Suraj Panwar is the latest among three walkers who have now lost the qualified status. And what has raised eyebrows is the fact that all three, Suraj, Servin Sebastian and Arshpreet Singh, breached the qualifying mark at the Indian Open Race Walking Competition that was held in Chandigarh in January this year.

Suraj had clocked 1:19:44 to win silver behind Akshdeep Singh but World Athletics has now erased that mark. Instead, his 1:21:52, which he had registered at the Borsky Mikulas meet in Slovakia, has been shown as his best timing this season. The qualifying standard for Paris Olympics has been set at 1:20:10.

Earlier, Servin and Arshpreet lost their qualified status after their timings were revised due to faulty reading and suspicion of result manipulation in the Chandigarh meet. Servin had won bronze in 1:20:03, while Arshpreet finished fourth in 1:20:04. However after the result was revised, Servin’s new timing was registered as 1:20:29.65, while Arshpreet was pegged at 1:21:04. Both have been dropped from the Road to Paris list. Interestingly, both Akshdeep who crossed the finish line at 1:19:38, and Servin went under the national record of 1:19:55 which was set by Akshdeep at the Indian Open Race Walking competition in Ranchi in 2023.

Unlike in the case of Arshpreet and Servin, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is trying to get Suraj’s old timings restored by the World Athletics.

AFI president Adille Sumariwalla said that it was too early to conclude about the latest case.

“We will have to wait for the final list of World Athletics. It is premature to discuss at this point when three weeks are still left,” Sumariwalla told The Tribune on Thursday.

Each national sports federation can only field a maximum of three athletes in the men’s 20km race walk event for the Paris Olympics. Apart from Akshdeep, Ram Baboo, Paramjeet Singh Bisht and Vikash Singh have so far achieved the qualifying mark. Those who have dropped from the list will now have to compete at the national championships later this month in Panchkula.