Inter State Athletics Championships 2023: Sandeep Kumar, Bhawna Jat win 20km race walk

Kartik Kumar and Kuldeep Singh broke meet records on the opening day.

The opening day of the National Inter State Athletics Championships 2023 started on a fruitful note with few meet records being broken. Two-time Olympian Sandeep Kumar lived up to the expectations and won the gold medal in the men's 20km race walk. He was closely followed by Servin and Hardeep who finished second and third respectively.

In the 20km women's race walk, the Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medallist, Priyanka Goswami, finished second by clocking 1:40.33; behind seasoned campaigner Bhawna Jat who claimed the first spot. On the other hand the men's and women's 10,000m run was conducted simultaneously inside the Kalinga International Stadium.

Four players (Kartik Kumar, Gulveer Singh, Pritam Kumar, and Harman Jot Singh) breached the qualification mark for the Asian Games set by AFI in the men’s 10,000m. Out of the four, Kartik (29:01.84) and Gulveer (29.03:78) further created a meet record to finish in the first and second spots respectively. In the women's section, Seema pipped Sanjivani Jadhav (considered the favourite) to clinch the top spot.

Quarter-miler Vithya Ramraj recorded a personal best time in women's 400m with young sensation Rezoana Malick, Aishwarya Mishra, and Vismaya making it to the semi-finals scheduled tomorrow. Sprinter Hima Das was ruled out of the Inter States as she is yet to recover from a hamstring injury.

Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2023 Day 1 Medallists

Men's 20km race walk - 1. Sandeep Kumar (1:27:12), S. Servin (1:28:21), and 3. Hardeep (1:28:57)

Women's 20km race walk - 1. Bhawna Jat (1:37.03), Priyanka Goswami (1:40.33), and 3. Vandana (1:41.54)

Men's 10000m - 1. Kartik Kumar (29:01.84), 2. Gulveer Singh (29:03.78), and 3. Pritam Kumar (29:22.36)

Women's 10000m - 1. Seema (34:20.01), 2. Sanjivani Jadhav (34:34.10), and Poonam Dinkar (34:45.42)