Amit Khatri wins silver in 10000m race walk at World Athletics U20 meet

India’s Amit Khatri won the silver medal in the men’s 10,000m race walk at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday.

This was India’s second medal of the event after winning the bronze medal in the 4x400m mixed relay on the opening day.

Amit Khatri clocked 42:17.94, finishing seven seconds behind gold-medallist Heristone Wanyonyi of Kenya. Spain’s Paul McGrath won bronze.

The 17-year-old Indian race walker was leading until the final 600m, but Wanyonyi upped his pace in the final stages to overtake Amit Khatri and claimed gold.

Meanwhile, Priya H Mohan narrowly missed out on the bronze medal in the women’s 400m, as she finished fourth with a personal best 52.77 seconds. She had earlier won bronze with the mixed 4x400m relay team.

Nigeria’s Imaobong Uko won the women’s 400m gold medal, with Kornelia Lesiewicz of Poland winning silver and Kenya’s Sylvia Chelangat taking bronze. All three set their personal best timings in the final.

In the women’s 10,000m race walk, Baljeet Kaur finished seventh, clocking a personal best of 48:58.17.

Mexico’s Sofia Rodriguez became the women’s 10,000m race walk U20 world champion while Maele Bire-Heslous of France took silver and Eliska Martinkova of the Czech Republic won the bronze medal.

The Indian team of Abdul Rasheed, Sumit Chahal, Kapil and Barath Sridhar finished sixth in their heat of the men’s 4x400m relay, posting a time of 3:10.62 in what was their first race this season.

Their timing was also the slowest among the 11 relay teams, with only eight teams progressing to the final. Kapil and Barath Sridhar were part of the bronze-winning mixed 4x400m relay team.

The 19-year-old Rohan Kamble finished seventh in the second semi-final of the men’s 400m hurdles, clocking 52.88 seconds.

It was only good enough for 18th place overall, with only eight advancing to the final.