India's Amit Khatri won the silver medal in men's 10,000m race walk at the World Athletics U20 Championships as he finished with a time of 42 minutes 17.94 seconds in Nairobi on Saturday. Amit finished behind gold medal winner Heristone Wanyonyi of Kenya who clocked a time of 42:10.84. The Indian youngster had led the race for large parts before being overtaken by Wanyonyi in the penultimate lap. Paul McGrath of Spain took home the bronze medal with a time of 42:26.11.
Amit, 17, had set a new national U-20 record in 10km race walking earlier this year when he won the title at the 18th National Federation Cup with a time of 40:40.97.
“As it's a high altitude so breathing (was a) problem for me. It was my first international competition and (I) won silver for India. I'm happy with silver at least I could fulfil the hopes of India,” said Amit after winning the medal, according to a tweet shared by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
This is the first time that an Indian has won a medal in race walking and is also the first time that the country has won two medals in a single edition of the event. The mixed 4x400m relay team had won the bronze medal earlier this week.
In the mixed relay race, the Indian quartet of Bharath S, Priya Mohan, Summy and Kapil had clocked 3 minutes 20.60 seconds to finish third in the final.
Overall, this is the sixth medal won by an Indian at the World Athletics U20 Championships. Previous winners include Seema Antil, Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, Neeraj Chopra and Hima Das.