Tokyo Olympics 20km race walk: Sandeep Kumar finishes as leading Indian in 23rd
Indian race walkers Rahul Rohilla finished 47th while KT Irfan was 51st among 57 athletes. Sandeep Kumar’s time was about five minutes slower than the national record.
National record holder Sandeep Kumar was the best performing Indian in the Tokyo Olympics men’s 20km race walk at the Sapporo Odori Park on Thursday.
The 35-year-old Sandeep Kumar, a two-time Olympian, clocked 1:25:07 to finish 23rd. Sandeep previously competed at the Rio 2016 Games in the 50km race walk, finishing the race in 35th place.
From a field of 57 in the 20km race walk in Tokyo, 52 athletes finished the race. Rahul Rohilla was the second-best Indian with a timing of 1:32:06 in a lowly 47th while KT Irfan, the first Indian to qualify for Tokyo 2020, was 51st with 1:34:41.
KT Irfan is also a two-time Olympian. He took part in the London 2012 Games in the 20km race walk, finishing in 10th place.
At Tokyo 2020, Italy’s Massimo Stano saw off a stiff challenge from Koki Ikeda of Japan to win the gold medal in 1:21:05. The Japanese took the silver in 1:21:14 while his compatriot and the reigning world champion Toshikazu Yamanishi completed the podium in 1:21:28.
On a sunny day in Sapporo, Sandeep Kumar and China’s Kaihua Wang set the pace for the race as the two broke away from the leading pack in the initial two kilometres.
Though Sandeep Kumar was handed a ‘loss of contact’ violation call, he nevertheless stayed with Wang as the two opened up a 13-second lead by the fourth kilometre.
As per race walking rules, athletes need to have one foot on the ground at all times in a manner visible to the naked eye.
Moreover, race walkers shouldn’t bend their advancing knee and the leg should straighten as the body passes over it.
Judges present throughout the course enforce these laws. If an athlete is seen violating the rules, they are penalised for ‘loss of contact’ and ‘bent knee’, respectively.
Three violations result in a two-minute penalty while an additional violation will result in the participant’s disqualification from the race.
Sandeep Kumar dropped off by the 10th kilometre, but Kaihua Wang continued to surge ahead.
Kaihua Wang, however, couldn’t hold on to the lead for long. The Japanese duo of Toshikazu Yamanishi and Koki Ikeda soon caught up along with Italian Massimo Stano.
The 25-year-old Toshikazu Yamanishi looked on course to win, but Massimo Stano switched gears with just over four kilometres to go and raced ahead to win the Olympic gold medal.