Indian race-walkers depart for World team championship

The Indian Race Walking team departed on Wednesday to participate in the IAAF World Race Walk Team Championship to be held at Taicang, China on May 5-6.

The Indian team comprising National record holder Irfan KT, Vikash Singh and Neeraj Kumar will compete in Men's 20km category while Sandeep Kumar and Jitendra Singh will participate in Men's 50km competition.

In Women's 20km, Khushbir Kaur, Soumya B, Ravina and Shanti Kumari will represent India.

The Indian race walking team for Asian Games to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from August 18 to September 2 will be selected based on the performance of the athletes in Taicang.

However, Manish Kumar Rawat who finished sixth with the timing of 1:22.22 at the Commonwealth Games 2018 last month has been rested and his performance of 1:22.22 achieved at Gold Coast will be considered for selection in the team for Asian Games.

The qualification guidelines set by Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for the men's 20km is 1:22.00 while it is 1:34.54 for the women's 20km event and 3:55.00 for men's 50km category.