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.