India’s 20km race walkers Priyanka Goswami and Akshdeep Singh became the first athletes from the country to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics on Tuesday. The duo also made the cut for the 2023 World Athletics Championships which will be held in Budapest in August.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Goswami clinched gold at the 10th Indian Open Race Walking Championships in Ranchi with a timing of 1:28:50 hrs ahead of Bhawana Jat (1:29:44) and Sonal Sukhwal (1:31:03). The cut-off for the women’s 20km race walk for the Paris Olympics and the World Championships is 1:29:20 hrs with Jat missing the mark by 24 seconds.

In the men’s event, Akshdeep Singh broke the National Record with a timing of 1:19:55 hrs to clinch gold ahead of Suraj Panwar (1:20:11) and Vikas Singh (1:21:08). The Olympics and World Championships qualification standard for men is 1:20:10. While Akshdeep made the cut, Panwar missed the mark by just one second.