RANCHI, Feb 15: Ram Baboo and Manju Rani made big improvements in their personal timings to rewrite the men and women’s 35km national records en route to winning gold medals on the concluding day of the National Race Walking Championships here on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old Manju, representing Punjab, became the first Indian woman to clock sub-3 hour in 35km race walk event, winning in 2:57.54s, as she broke the earlier national record of 3:00.04s set last year by Ramandeep Kaur.
Manju completed the race nearly eight minutes faster than her earlier personal best of 3:07:49s, which she had clocked while finishing second behind Ramandeep in the last edition of the championships here in 2022.
Baboo of Uttar Pradesh, also 23, improved his own national mark of 2:36.34s by nearly five minutes to 2:31:36s.
However, they failed to match the World Athletics Championships qualifying standards of 2:29.40s (men) and 2:51.30s (women).
The 35km race walk is a very new event, introduced in India only in 2021 in the wake of World Athletics’ decision to do away with the 50km discipline after the Tokyo Olympics.
For Manju, it was the first win in five starts since preferring the 35km event during the National Open Championships in Warangal in September 2021, when she had clocked 3:32:57s.
She had won a silver and a bronze respectively in the National Games in Gujarat and National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru last year, clocking 3:22:32s and 3:17:02s respectively.
“I have worked very hard for this and I am happy that I could break the national record today. I will train harder and improve gradually to win laurels for the country,” Manju said.
Seeking a hat-trick of titles after winning the National Games in Gandhinagar and the National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru in October last, Uttarakhand’s Payal was unable to stay abreast of Manju and finished the race a shade outside her personal best to take the silver medal with a timing of 3:05.43s.
Bandana Patel of Uttar Pradesh took the bronze with a personal best time of 3:11.35s.
Defending champion Ramandeep finished fifth with a below-par timing of 3:20.25s.
In the men’s 35km event, a determined Baboo regained the crown that he had ceded to Juned Khan in April last year.
Hailing from Bauar village in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, Baboo consolidated his position as the country’s pre-eminent 35km race walker, having won back-to-back titles in the National Games in Gandhinagar and the National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru in October last year.
His father was a farmer-cum-labourer. Baboo himself had worked as a waiter at a Varanasi hotel and did courier packaging to continue his training. Following the COVID-19 lockdown, Baboo had joined his father in manual labour under the government’s MNREGA scheme.
“I had the confidence in my ability and knew that I had trained right for the event. I am delighted that the course here encourages us to aim for improvement,” Baboo, who also shifted to 35km event during the National Open Championships in Warangal, said.
Defending champion Juned improved his personal best by four minutes but found Baboo a tough nut to crack and had to be satisfied with the silver medal this time. He clocked 2:36.04s.
The vastly experienced Chandan Singh also lowered his personal best by over four minutes to 2:36.55s but had to content with a fourth successive bronze medal in the national-level 35km events.
Results:
Men’s 35km: 1. Ram Baboo (Uttar Pradesh) 2:31.36s (New National Record); 2. Juned Khand (Haryana) 2:36.04s; 3. Chandan Singh (Uttarakhand) 2:36.55s.
Women’s 35km: 1. Manju Rani (Punjab) 2:57.54s (New National Record); 2. Payal (Uttarakhand) 3:05.43s; 3. Bandana Patel (Uttar Pradesh) 3:11.35s. (PTI)
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