Tag Archives: K.T. Irfan – Olympian Race Walker

K.T. Irfan becomes first Indian athlete to qualify for Tokyo Olympics

Sports, World Opinion, , , ,

KERALA :

K.T. Irfan. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
K.T. Irfan. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

He was one of the two Indian athletes who were expelled from the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

National record holder K.T. Irfan on Sunday became the first Indian from athletics to qualify for the next year’s Olympics  while finishing fourth in the 20 km event of the Asian Race Walking Championships in Nomi, Japan.

The 29-year-old Irfan clocked 1 hour 20 minutes and 57 seconds to better the Tokyo Olympics qualification standard of 1 hour 21 minutes. The Olympics qualification period for race walk events and marathon race has begun from January 1 this year and will run till May 31, 2020. The Olympics qualification period for all other athletics events will start from May 1 this year and will run till June 29, 2020.

No other Indian from athletics has so far qualified for Tokyo Olympics. Irfan, who has a personal best as well as national record of 1:20:21 which he did during his 10th place finish in 2012 Olympics, also qualified for this year’s World Championships (September 27-October 6) in Doha, Qatar as he bettered the qualifying mark of 1:22:30.

The Kerala race walker had won the 20 km event in the National Open Race Walk Championships in Chennai last month with a time of 1:26:18.

He was one of the two Indian athletes who were expelled from the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games for not adhering to the ‘no needle policy’ of the Games. He was disqualified in the 20 km race walk event of the 2018 Asian Games after receiving his third warning for “loss of contact.”

Japan’s Toshikazu Yamanishi won the 20 km race walk event with an impressive time of 1:17:15 while Kazakhstan’s Georgiy Sheiko and Korea’s Byeongkwang Choe were second and third in 1:20:21 and 1:20:40 respectively.

The Asian and World record in men’s 20 km race walk stands in the name of Japanese Yusuke Suzuki who clocked 1:16:36 in the 2015 edition of the same championships in Nomi.

Two other Indians, Devinder Singh and Ganapathi Krishnan also qualified for the World Championships as they clocked 1:21:22 and 1:22:12 respectively. They had finished second and fifth in the Chennai National Race Walk Championships with timings of 1:26:19 and 1:26:43.

In the women’s 20 km race walk event, Soumya Baby finished fourth with a timing of 1:36:08, well outside Olympics qualifying standard of 1:31:00 and World Championships qualifying standard of 1:33:30.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Athletics / by PTI / New Delhi – March 17th, 2019

National race walk championships: It’s Irfan & Soumya

Sports, World Opinion, , , , ,

KERALA :

Walking to glory: K.T. Irfan began the new season on a confident note.
Walking to glory: K.T. Irfan began the new season on a confident note.

Both nowhere near their personal best

Olympian race walker K.T. Irfan had the worst possible year of his career in 2018.

He was ejected from the Gold Coast Commwealth Games village after his roommate was found with a syringe in his bag, a few days after the race. And in the subsequent Jakarta Asian Games, he was disqualified.

The 29-year-old from Kerala, who holds the National record, however, began the new season on a confident note by winning the men’s 20K gold in the sixth Open National race walk championships here on Saturday in a time of one hour 26 minutes and 18 seconds.

It was a far cry from his personal best of 1:20.21 at the 2012 London Olympics.

B. Soumya (Kerala) coasted to a relatively easy victory in the women’s 20K category in a time of 1:40.25. Priyanka finished second in 1:41.20.

Soumya was behind Priyanka and Karamjit Kaur in the first 11 laps and after that she took control of the proceedings.

Soumya couldn’t come anywhere close to her National record of 1:31.28 set in Delhi last year in the same event.

Warnings

Karamjit was handed three warnings and was asked to start from the pit lane.

She did not want to continue as she thought she had already lost a lot of time.

“There was some problem with the road. And also I missed the services of [Russian] coach Alexander Artsybashev,” said Soumya. It is learnt that Alexander will soon join the team in the camp.

In the top bunch, which included Sandeep Kumar, Chandan Singh, Devender Singh and Ganapathi Krishnan, Irfan was trailing for most part of the race.

He picked up speed in the last 1km to breast the tape one second ahead of Devender.

“It feels great but I am not happy with the timing.

“It was partly due to the humid weather conditions and the sloped roads,” said Irfan.

Unable to make the qualification grade for the Doha World Championships in September-October, both Irfan and Soumya said they will definitely make the grade in the Asian championships to be held in Nomi (Japan) next month.

Compared to the previous five editions, the Chennai event saw the poorest time recorded by the winners.

The results:

20km, men: 1. K.T. Irfan (Ker) 1:26.18; 2. Devender Singh (Har) 1:26.19; 3. Sandeep Kumar (Har) 1:26.19; 4. Chandan Singh (Utk) 1:26.20; 5. K. Ganapathi Krishnan 1:26.43.

Women: 1. B. Soumya (Ker) 1:40.25; 2. Priyanka (UP) 1:41.20; 3. Ravina (Har) 1:41.46; 4. Sonal Sukhwal (Raj) 1:42.55; 5. Bandana Patel (UP) 1:49.29.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Athletics / by K. Keerthivasan / Chennai – February 16th, 2019