Race walker Suraj loses Paris ticket as World Athletics cancels outcomes of Nationals

Suraj Panwar had missed the automated qualification normal for the Paris Olympics by one second within the 20km occasion on the race strolling Nationals in Ranchi early final yr the place he clocked 1:20.11s for the silver.

The 23-year-old from Uttarakhand should have been fairly thrilled when he made the reduce this yr, clocking 1:19.43.08s (Olympics entry normal 1:20.10s) for the silver, on the race strolling Nationals in Chandigarh in January. That might have positioned him second within the checklist of Indians who could be flying for subsequent month’s Paris Olympics.

Sadly, the World Athletics has now made all the primary day’s outcomes of the two-day Nationals invalid, marking them as IRM (invalid outcomes marks) on its web site.

Along with his private finest time cancelled, Suraj will now need to rush and do a quick time someplace earlier than the June 30 deadline to go to Paris for his finest time now within the qualification interval is 1:20.11 which he clocked in Ranchi final yr. That may also imply that Punjab’s Akshdeep Singh, who bettered his personal nationwide report to win the gold, may now lose his new report (1:19:37.56).

Walkers have an extended qualification interval to make the reduce for Paris (December 31, 2022-June 30, 2024) and Akshdeep (1:19.55, in India final yr), Ram Baboo (1:20.00, Slovakia), Vikash Singh (1:20.05, Japan) and Paramjeet Singh (1:20.08, Japan) have already achieved the automated qualification normal earlier or in different worldwide meets whereas Suraj, who nearly had a confirmed berth, has been neglected. By the best way, solely three can go to Paris.

One couldn’t get by to Adille Sumariwalla, the Athletics Federation of India president, for particulars on the world physique’s transfer. And Stanley Jones, the chairman of AFI’s technical committee, couldn’t provide any readability on the difficulty.

“I’m not conscious of this, I don’t know…as a result of I don’t get something,” Jones instructed The Hindu on Thursday.

Nevertheless one technical official, who was on the Chandigarh Nationals however who didn’t want to be named, mentioned there was a difficulty with a transponder (which counts the laps and takes timings) on the venue on the primary day and that may very well be the explanation for the outcomes being made invalid by World Athletics.