Annu Rani, 30, and Priyanka Goswami, 26, became India’s first female athletes to win medals in javelin throw and 10,000m race walk events respectively at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. However, both rue the lack of support for female athletes in the country.

In fact, Goswami went a step further to emphasise that people don’t even know about an event like race walking. “How many of you know about race walking,” she asked an audience of around 60 people on the sidelines of an event to announce a new partnership between HSBC and the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to hasten the growth of women’s athletics in the country. “Most people know nothing about my event which is why there is little hope of a medal in it. Hence, wherever I go, I ask this question. I want more people to know about race walking,” said Goswami, who clocked a personal best time of 43:38.83 seconds to win the silver medal at the Birmingham CWG.