World Athletics C'ships: India's campaign off to poor start in race walk event

Tokyo [Japan], September 13 : India's campaign at World Athletics Championships kickstarted on Saturday in 35 km race walk event, with Priyanka Goswami registering a 24th place finish in women's while Sandeep Kumar finishing 23rd in men's event.

Ram Baboo, however, faced disqualification. The World Championships are being held in Tokyo from Thursday and will run till September 21, as per Olympics.com. This is the 20th edition of the competition.

The Indian contingent features a total of 19 players, including 14 men and five women players, who will be vying for medals in 15 different events, 11 for men and four for women.

The current javelin throw world champion Neeraj Chopra, who became the first-ever Indian to land a gold at the world meet, is the headliner in the team, alongside long jump star Murali Sreeshankar, women's javelin national record-holder Annu Rani and rising star Animesh Kujur, who is set to become the first Indian sprinter to compete at the World Championships.

Also, triple jumper Praveen Chitravel, 3000m steeplechase runner Parul Chaudhary and Abdulla Aboobacker are among the other key names in the squad. Gulveer Singh and Pooja will be doubling up in two events each as well.

Heading into the meet, Indian athletes have won three World Championship medals, Anju Bobby George's long jump bronze at Paris 2003, Neeraj Chopra's javelin silver at Oregon 2022 and his monumental gold at Budapest 2023.

Over 2,000 athletes across 200 nations are aiming for a medal at the championships, with a massive 147 medals on the line in 49 different events.

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