New Delhi: The outcomes of the Indian Open Race Strolling Competitors are but to be up to date by the World Athletics (WA) for world championships qualification. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) stated there was a technical glitch in a single race (girls’s 35km) throughout the April 19 occasion in Chandigarh, however outcomes of different races shall be thought of by WA.
Race walkers will now need to compete in one other occasion to spice up qualification probabilities for Tokyo world championships. (AFI)
Race walkers, nevertheless, say that once they reached out to WA, they had been advised the competitors has not met the set “standards and criteria” and subsequently the outcomes will not be thought of for rating factors in direction of the Tokyo World Championships in September.
If the outcome isn’t added, the race walkers should compete in one other occasion to spice up qualification probabilities. In Tokyo, competitions shall be held within the 20km and 35km occasions (women and men). Three leads to the qualification interval (Feb 25, 2024-Aug 24, 2025) are thought of for world rankings. A most of three race walkers from one nation can compete.
It has been discovered that within the girls’s 35km competitors, there was a problem with the counting of laps within the course (highway) and the race completed at 34km.
“There was an issue with only a 35km race walk. It was a human error on the part of a judge due to which the result of women’s 35km race walk has been scrapped. We have already taken action against the judge. The result of other races will be updated in the rankings,” AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla advised HT.
The competitors is performed by technical officers of AFI. In addition to, there are three WA race-walking judges who monitor the races and report back to the world physique.
Curiously, the results of India Open Race Strolling Competitors of 2024 additionally got here underneath scrutiny due an identical technical error. WA had not recognised the timings of three race walkers who had certified for Paris Olympics from that meet. One in all them was Servin Sebastian.
Sadly, Servin is once more on the receiving finish for no fault of his. He gained the 20km occasion clocking 1 hour, 21 minutes, 47 seconds. Servin is in good type this season and presently ranked simply exterior of the highest 50 (Street to Tokyo) who will qualify for Tokyo. The Chandigarh outcome would have taken him into the top-50. Now, Servin should do effectively on the Asian Championships to qualify. The 35km males’s race stroll was gained by 2023 Asian Video games bronze medallist Ram Baboo (2:32:54).
A coach stated it was disappointing that race walkers will now need to compete in one other occasion to have any probability of qualifying for Tokyo. “How can you repeatedly have technical errors in the most important competition of your domestic calendar? It is a lot of hard work and effort and now to not have the result is very discouraging. Not every athlete has the sponsor to go out and compete in events overseas to qualify,” the coach stated.