Indian men's 20km race walk team wins bronze after seven years through upgrade

Seven years after India missed a podium place at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Russia, the country was on Friday handed a bronze medal upgrade following disqualification of a member of the second-placed Ukrainian team for dope violation.

The Indian team of K T Infra, Babubhai Panucha and Surinder Singh had finished fourth in the men's 20km team event behind China, Ukraine and Australia in May 2012 at Saransk.

But Ukrainian race walker Ruslan Dmytrenko was disqualified after seven years on the basis of his biological passport analysis, and that led to the Indian team's result being upgraded to bronze.

The performances of three best finishers in the 20km individual event was counted to decide the team rankings and India collected 68 points to finish fourth originally.

After the annulment of Dmytrenko's result, India and Ukraine were tied on points. But India has a higher position finish of the last (third) walker (29th as against 51st of Ukraine) to break the tie and got the bronze.

Dmytrenko had won a bronze in the individual event and he will be stripped off that medal as well.

"Men's 20km Race Walking Team is elevated to Bronze Medal position after 7 years at IAAF Race Walking World Cup held at Saransk #Russia in 2012," the Athletics Federation of India tweeted.