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On the opening day of the 62nd National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship, three athletes secured qualification for the Hangzhou Asian Games in their respective events.
It was a day for the athletes from Uttar Pradesh to shine as two distance runners, Kartik Kumar and Gulveer Singh, booked their tickets to the Hangzhou Asian Games. During his gold medal-winning effort, Kartik bettered the qualification time of 29:30.00 seconds by clocking 29:01.84 seconds. Meanwhile, Gulveer bagged the silver medal as he wasn’t far behind with a time of 29:03.78 seconds.
During the post-race reaction, Kartik Kumar made his goal of winning a medal at the Asian Games clear.
“My next goal is to win a medal at the Asian Games,” said Kumar.
Also, both Kartik and Gulveer made new records at the meet as they bettered the previous record of 29:06.17 seconds, which was registered in 2007 by the Olympian Surendra Singh.
Bhavna Jat seals her Asian Games spot with a gold medal
In the 20km women’s race walk, Bhavna Jat took the gold home ahead of the Commonwealth Games silver medalist Priyanka Goswami with a timing of 1:37.03 seconds.
“Considering the weather, I think it’s good timing. There was a fear of over-exerting in this heat and risk getting injured,” said Priyanka Goswami after the race.
In the women’s 10000m event, 22-year-old Seema from Himachal Pradesh toppled her experienced rival Sanjeevani Jadhav to clinch gold. However, the youngster failed to qualify for the Asian Games after falling short of her personal best.
In the men’s 20km race walk, the veteran athlete from Haryana, Sandeep Kumar won the gold, while Servin S from Tamil Nadu managed to get his hands on the silver medal.
National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship: Results (All Finals)
Men 10000m:
🥇 Kartik Kumar (Uttar Pradesh)
🥈 Gulveer Singh (Uttar Pradesh)
🥉 Pritam Kumar (Delhi)
20km race walk (Men):
🥇 Sandeep Kumar (Haryana)
🥈 Servin S (Tamil Nadu)
🥉 Hardeep (Silver)
20km race walk (Women):
🥇 Bhavna Jat (Rajasthan)
🥈 Priyanka Goswami (Uttar Pradesh)
🥉 Vandana (Karnataka)
Women 10000m:
🥇 Seema (Himachal Pradesh)
🥈 Sanjeevani Jadhav (Maharashtra)
🥉 Poonam Dinkar (Maharashtra)
