Chandigarh, Feb 20 (PTI) Some of the country’s top race walkers will compete in the newly-introduced events of 21km half marathon and 42km full marathon senior men’s and women’s events at the Indian Open Race Walk Competition beginning here on Saturday.
The two-day domestic race walk competition will be conducted on Saturday and Sunday at Chandigarh’s picturesque Sukhna Lake.
“The World Athletics had introduced half marathon walk and full marathon walk events last reason. It is for the first time Indian athletes will compete over the newly introduced events,” chief national athletics coach Radhakrishnan Nair said.
Till the 2025 season, the standard distance in senior men and women race walk was 20km and 35km in all competitions sanctioned by World Athletics.
The main attraction during the two-day competition will be the men’s half marathon walk (21km).
Four Paris Olympians — Akshdeep Singh, Paramjeet Singh Bisht, Suraj Panwar and Vikash Singh — will be seen in action on Sunday.
All the four will be battling with Servin Sebastain, who had dominated the 2025 season and represented India at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Servin is all set to compete over 21km event.
“Preparation has been on track. I’m healthy and expect good performance on Sunday,” Servin said.
One foreign athlete, Germany’s promising race walker Frederick Weigel will compete in the men’s 21km event.
The field is equally impressive in the men’s full marathon walk (42km).
Olympian and Commonwealth Games medallist in 10km race walk, Sandeep Kumar, is prominent among 31 athletes registered for the competition.
Former World U20 medallist Amit, and Ram Baboo will also test their endurance over a full marathon race walk event.
In the women’s full marathon race walk event, Olympian Priyanka Goswami will battle with Payal (Uttarakhand) and Manju (Punjab) for supremacy. Only nine athletes have entered for the women’s full marathon walk.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has also invited three foreign race walk judges, including one from Malaysia, to oversee the two-day competition.
Along with foreign officials, Indian judges will also coordinate for the smooth conduct of the competition.
Apart from full marathon walk and half marathon walk, competition will also be held in senior men and women’s 10km. The distance for U20 will be 5km. PTI PDS AM PDS AM AM
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