Race Walking: KT Irfan walks into Tokyo 2020

KT Irfan

National record holder KT Irfan 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.

Irfan, 29, clocked 1:20:57 to better the Tokyo Olympics qualification mark of 1 hour 21 mins. 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 qualification period for other athletics events will start from May 1 and will run till June 29, 2020.

No other Indian from athletics has yet qualified for Tokyo. 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 (Sept 27 to Oct 6) in Doha 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 C'ships in Chennai last month with a time of 1:26:18.

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