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Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully assess that this is maintained throughout the race. Typically held on either roads or running tracks, common distances range from 3,000 metres (1.9 mi) up to 100 kilometres (62.1 mi).
Volodymyr Stepanovych Holubnychy was a Soviet and Ukrainian race walker, who competed for the Soviet Union. He dominated the 20 kilometre race walk in the 1960s and 1970s, winning four Olympic medals from 1960 to 1972 and finishing seventh in 1976. He became Olympic champion in 1960 and 1968. He is regarded as one of the greatest race walkers of all time and competed at the Olympics on five occasions in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976.
Heraclio Eder Sánchez Terán is a Mexican race walker. He has competed at the World Championships in Athletics five times and represented his country at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics. He is currently serving the Mexican Army, and has won the Mexican 'Premio Nacional del Deporte'. He holds the Mexican record for walking over 5 km and 10 km. His best for the 20 km distance is 1:18:34 hours.
Yohann Diniz is a French race walker. He is the current world-record holder for the 50 km race, with a time of 3:32:33, and for the 50,000 metres track walk, with a time of 3:35:27.
Valeriy Viktorovich Borchin is a race walker from Russia who won the 2008 Olympic gold medal and was World champion over the 20 km distance. His World Championship was retroactively stripped in 2015 due to doping.
Hari Chand was an Indian long-distance runner. In the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, he came eighth in the heats of the 10,000 metre run with a time of 28:48.7. This however was a national record for an Indian athlete and was only beaten 32 years later by Surendra Singh. In the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow he came 10th in the heats of the 10,000 meter run. He also came 22nd in the 1980 Olympic Men's Marathon. He ran barefoot in Montreal.
Milkha Singh, also known as "The Flying Sikh", was an Indian track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the Indian Army. He is the only athlete to win gold at 400 metres at the Asian Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. He also won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games. He represented India in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his sporting achievements.
Wang Zhen is a Chinese race walker who specialises in the 10 kilometres and 20 kilometres race walk. He holds the senior Asian record for the 20 km with his time of 1:17:36 hours and is also the Asian, Chinese and junior world record holder over 10 km. He was the bronze medallist over 20 km at the 2012 London Olympics and the gold medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Cristian Andrés Chocho León is an Ecuadorian race walker who competes in both the 20 km and 50 km walk events. He is the South American record holder in the 50 km and 20,000 metres walking events.
In India, the sport of athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed at national level by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946. Despite its large population, few Indian athletes have won a medal in a global or major championship. This began to change in the 21st century, when Indians started taking greater interest in athletics more generally and improved facilities for the sport began to be built at a local level. At a continental level, it has been among the more successful Asian nations, though some distance behind China and Japan.
Gurmeet Singh is an Indian athlete who competes in the 20 kilometres race walk event. He is a current Indian record holder in the 20 km race walk, which he set in the Indian Grand Prix I in Patiala in May 2011. Gurmeet is sponsored by the Mittal Champions Trust, an initiative run by steel magnate Lakshmi N. Mittal. He is one of the three Indian athletes who qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in 20 km race walk event with an 'A' qualification standard (1:22:30). He achieved this berth in the 18th Dublin International Grand Prix in Ireland after finishing sixth with a time of 1:22:05.
Naib subedar Irfan Kolothum Thodi is an Indian athlete and Indian Army junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) from Malappuram, Kerala.
Sepoy Basanta Bahadur Rana is an Indian athlete who competes in racewalking. He represented India in the 50 km race walk event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. His personal best in this event before the Games was 4:02:13 and he bettered it by clocking a time of 3:56:48, a new national record.
Ram Singh Yadav is an Indian marathon runner. Ram represented India at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London. He achieved the B qualification standard (2:18:00) by clocking a time of 2:16:59 at the 2012 Mumbai Marathon, which is also his best performance in this event. He is the second Indian athlete ever to be qualified for the marathon event of the Olympics. Before Yadav, Shivnath Singh was the Indian athlete who participated in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Ram is a havildar in the Indian Army.
Khushbir Kaur is an Indian athlete, a 20-kilometre racewalker. She first came into limelight after winning bronze in the 10,000-metre (6.2 mi) walk race at the 2012 Asian Junior Athletics Championships held at Colombo, Sri Lanka. She participated in the 2013 World Championships in the 20 km walk category. She clocked 1:34:28 and finished 39th. At the 2014 Asian walking championships in Japan, she came second with a timing of 1:33:07 and bettered her own national record of 1:33:37. In the same year, she became the first Indian woman to win a silver at the Asian Games. She received the Arjuna Award in 2017 after her consecutive victories in International sports events.
Race walking events at the Summer Olympics have been contested over a variety of distances at the multi-sport event. There were three race walking events in the 2020 Summer Olympics: a men's and a women's 20 kilometres walk, and a men's 50 kilometres walk. The races were held in a final-only format.
Evan Dunfee is a Canadian race walker and Olympian. An Olympic and World medallist, Dunfee first set the Canadian record in the 50 kilometres race walk at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where he placed fourth. He went on to win bronze medals at the 2019 World Athletics Championships and the 2020 Summer Olympics, both of those the last time the 50 km was to be featured as an event.
Manish Singh Rawat is a male Indian racewalker. He competes in the 20 km and the 50 km events and is employed by the Uttarakhand State Police. He has been part of the Indian racewalking squad for the past 3 years.
Rhydian Cowley is an Australian race walker born in Glen Waverley, Victoria who specialises in the 50 kilometres race walk and 20 kilometres race walk. Cowley competed in the 2013 World Championships in Moscow and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. For both of his major championship competitions, Cowley qualified in the 20 kilometres race walk. He has also competed at a Summer Universiade, five World Race Walking Cups, and a World Junior Championships. In 2021, he competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo where he finished in 8th in the men's 50 kilometres walk with a new personal best time of 3:52.01 just 113 seconds behind the eventual winner Dawid Tomala of Poland.
References
- ↑ "Biography of Baljinder Singh". International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- ↑ "An introduction to Indian long distance walkers". The Hindu . Retrieved 9 July 2012.
- ↑ "The loneliness of the long-distance walkers". The Hindu . 7 July 2012. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013.
