Race Walk Mixed Relay Championship: Indian pair of Priyanka-Akshdeep achieved Olympic quota

India’s Priyanka Goswami and Akshdeep Singh secured Paris 2024 Olympic quota places by finishing 18th in the mixed marathon race walking relay event at the 2024 World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya on Sunday. The Indian pair achieved the quota by clocking 3:05.03.

The event was won by Italy’s Francesco Fortunato and Valentina Trapaletti, who won the gold medal with a time of 2:56:45. This is also the pair’s personal best time. They were followed by Japan’s Koki Ikeda and Kumiko Okada, who clocked a personal best of 2:57:04.

Bronze was won by the Spanish pair of Alvaro Martín and Laura García-Caro, who finished the race in 2:57:47. The race walk is conducted in a mixed relay championship relay format with teams, consisting of one male and one female athlete, covering the full marathon distance of 42.195 km.

First the man walks 12.195 km and then the woman walks 10 km, after that the man walks 10 km and the last 10 km is covered by the woman. There is a distance of 20 meters for changeover before the start of each stage.

The marathon race walk mixed relay is included for the first time in the Olympic Games and will make its debut in Paris, with the Walking Team Championships Antalya 24 being the main qualifying event for the new discipline.

A total of 22 teams secured berths for Paris in Antalya. Up to five of the first 22 teams could be other teams from the same country, and two teams each from Japan, Spain, Australia, China and Colombia qualified.

Teams qualified for Paris Olympics:

Italy, Japan*, Spain*, Mexico, Brazil, Australia*, Spain, Ukraine, France, China*, China, Colombia*, Germany, Colombia, Australia, Japan, India, Turkey, Slovak Republic, Poland, Canada, Hungary