Baljinder wins Olympic quota; Gurmeet wins silver at Asian Championships

Punjab athlete Baljinder Singh has earned a berth for the London Olympics after finishing fifth in the Asian 20 Km Race Walking championships with a timing of 1:22:12.

The 'A' qualification standard for the London Olympics was 1:22:30. The 25-year-old Baljinder hails from Dera Bassi, about 20 km from Chandigarh on the Delhi-Chandigarh national highway.

En route to Nomi (Japan), Baljinder won the Indian trials at Patiala on February 15 with a time of 1:22:01.

A maximum of three athletes with "A" qualification performance can represent a country in an event at the Olympic Games.

In the same event, Baljinder's compatriot and national record-holder Gurmeet Singh, who qualified for Olympics with a timing of 1:22:05 in Dublin last year, won a silver medal.

He timed a commendable 1:21:31 for the silver medal.

Gurmeet had clocked an impressive 1:20:23 during the inter-railway championships at Bhubaneswar last month. Gurmeet led the race until the last kilometre but missed the gold to China's Zhu Chundong (1:21:22) with a gap of just 9 seconds.

For Chundong, it was a personal best as he improved nearly 7 minutes from his previous record. Gurmeet had finished seventh here last year.

Korean walker Byun Young Jun finished third for the bronze medal in 1:21:42.

Besides the above two Indians, Surinder Singh also finished creditably in 1:23:53, well ahead of Abbal Singh Rana (1:27:50).

Although only one athlete from a country is allowed to compete in each category (men/women) at the Asian race walking championships, India and Iran obtained special permission to field additional entries to attain Olympic qualification as the Nomi event was one of the pre-designated races to achieve the London grade.

In the women's race, Deepmala Devi finished fourth after clocking 1:42:01. China's Ding Huiquin took the top spot in 1:30:14. Rei Inoue of Japan (1:34:06) and Nguyen Thi Thanh of Vietnam (1:35:13) won the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Among the other women walkers from India, national champion Khusbir Kaur finished fifth in 1:44:30 while Gaurav Kumari did not finish the race.