WA invalidates results of 20km race walk event

New Delhi, June 7

In a decision which raises a lot of questions as to how competitions are being held in the country, the World Athletics (WA) has invalidated the results of both the men’s and women’s 20km race walking event of the 11th National Open Race Walking Championship.

The competition, held in Chandigarh in January this year, saw three runners – Suraj Panwar, Servin Sebastien and Arshpreet Singh – run under 1 hour, 20 minutes and 10 seconds, which is the qualifying standard for the Olympics.

As reported by The Tribune, all three lost the mark after a few athletes and coaches complained of revised timings.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has stated the variations in timings were due to faulty readings.

The allegations of race manipulation then led the WA to revise the timings of a few runners, including that of Servin and Arshpreet. In the latest decision, it has now decided to invalidate all the results from the 20km competition.

WA’s website shows invalid results mark (IRM) against all those who finished the race in both the men’s and women’s 20km race walk.

Chandigarh Athletics Association president Harjinder Singh said he was not aware of the development.

“This is the first time I am hearing about this. We were the hosts and we made sure the track and all other facilities that were required for the competition were in place,” Singh said. “The officials were sent by AFI and there were few foreign referees as well. I cannot comment on something which our association was not involved in,” he added.