The 26-year-old Priyanka Goswami became the first Indian female athlete to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. In the National Open Race Walking Championships 2023 in Morabadi (Ranchi, Jharkhand), she won the gold medal in the women’s 20km race walk and also met the qualifying standards in the women’s 20km race walk for both Paris 2024 Olympics and World Athletics Championships 2023.
The qualifying standard for the women’s 20km race walk event at both Paris 2024 and Budapest 2023 World Athletics Championships is 1 hour 29 minutes 20 seconds. Priyanka won the gold medal in the National Open Race Walking Championships 2023 after finishing the women’s 20km race walk event in 1:28:50. She was only five seconds behind her national record.
In the meantime, Bhawna Jat achieved the silver medal in the National Open Race Walking Championships 2023 after clocking 1:29:44. However, the Tokyo 2020 Olympian closely missed the qualifying standards.
With the timing of 1:31:03, Sonal Sukhwal bagged the bronze medal in the same event.
Who is Priyanka Goswami?
Priyanka Goswami represented India in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In the women’s 20km race walk event of the last Summer Olympics, she finished in the 17th position.
In the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Priyanka became the first Indian woman to win a medal in the race walk. It was the women’s 10,000m race walk event, where she won a silver medal after managing the national record 43:38.83s.
Also read about
