Ongoing domestic competition in Bhubaneswar is the last chance for aspiring athletes to achieve Japan Asian Games qualification standards.
Transition from a distance of 20km to 21km wasn’t challenging, says 24 years old international race walker Munita Prajapati from Uttar Pradesh. The global governing body in track and field—World Athletics—introduced new distance this season for both men and women. To make the race walking more spectator friendly, a 21km half marathon race walk event was introduced. Earlier it was 20km. The 35km event was changed to a 42km full marathon race walk. The first global competition under the new guidelines of World Athletics was held in April in Brazil.
Munita Prajapati says switching to a new distance wasn’t challenging. “For me it was ok,” Munita Prajapati told Sportsbackstory.com.
The international race walker was winner of the women’s 21km race walk on Friday morning in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The ongoing five-day 65th National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships is a major domestic competition for all aspiring athletes to achieve Japan Asian Games qualification standards.
Munita Prajapati’s winning time on Friday was 1:45:05.00 which was far slower than the Japan Asian Games qualification time of 1:37:20.00. “My main goal this year was to win the Japan Asian Games berth. I tried my best,” she claims.
Reshma Patel of Uttar Pradesh was second with a time of 1:45:48.00 and Sejla Anil Singh of Maharashtra was third with a time of 1:46:31.00.
EOM
