Uttarakhand is the new force reckon with in race walking

NEW DELHI: Uttrakhand athletes have stamped their authority in endurance events of the 36th National Junior Athletics Championships in Guwahati by winning as many as five medals in the race walking events so far.

After a dominant performance on Sunday, when the 2018 Youth Olympics silver medallistSurajPanwar won gold in the under-20 category and his teammate Reshma Patel claimed the under-18 girls' title hands down, Uttarakhand athletes continued their brilliant run by claiming three more medals on Monday. AdityaNegi won bronze in the under-18 category, and Himanshu Kumar and Babendra Singh Negi won silver and bronze in the under-16 boys' category to continue a glorious run.

This medal tally could go up on Tuesday when the girls' under-16 race walking events take place.

This performance by Uttarakhand athletes wasn't unexpected. Going by the results of the previous editions of the national meet, held in Guntur, athletes from Uttarakhand won seven medals in three age-categories, indicating huge depth in the field. The state team had won several medals at the 2018-19 edition of the National School Games, held in Sangrur, Punjab, highlighting the surge in the discipline.

"Almost all the athletes who we had fielded in the race walking events in Guntur in 2019 had medals around their neck. There were one or two who missed the podium finish but lost bronze medals by narrow margins," Uttarakhand athletics team coachAnoopBisht, who is overseeing the training of half a dozen race walkers, including Panwar and Reshma, told IANS.

What's the reason for Uttrakhand to throw up a supply line of quality race walkers, displacing Haryana and Punjab, the two dominant states in the recent events?

"The generation next has been inspired by the success of Olympian Manish Rawat, who had finished 13th in the men's 20km race walk event at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games," said Anoop.

"Coming from the high-altitude district Chamoli, Rawat's success story is an inspiring one. He was a sort of catalyst for youngsters of Uttarakhand. As he also landed a job in the sports quota in the state police department, that too serves as an inspiration -- those good athletes can get jobs as well," said GopalBisht, physical education teacher from Chamoli.

Gopal has a group of athletes, including Paramjeet Singh Bisht, who had won bronze in the Youth Asian Championships in 2019. Chamoli, in fact, is one of the pockets in Uttarakhand that has been producing good athletes in race walking. IANS

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