Akshdeep and Priyanka win men's and women's 20km race walk gold, qualify for Worlds and Olympics

The 22-year-old from Punjab clocked 1 hour 19 minutes and 55 seconds to obliterate the earlier national record of 1:20:16 which was in the name of veteran Sandeep Kumar who finished a lowly seventh with 1:23.28.

The men's 20km race walk qualifying time for both the World Championships to be held in Budapest in August and 2024 Olympics is 1:20:10.

Akshdeep had won a silver in the 2022 edition of the championships with a time of 1:23:14 which was his personal best till Tuesday's result. Before that, he had clocked 1:26:10 while finishing first at the Inter-University Championships at Moodbidri in Karnataka early last year.

Women's 20km event national record holder Priyanka Goswami expectedly won gold with a time of 1:28:50 to also qualify for both the World Championships and 2024 Olympics. Her national record stands at 1:28:45 which she had set in 2021.The women's 20km race walk qualifying time for both the World Championships to be held in Budapest in August and 2024 Olympics is 1:29:20.