Athletics: Ram Baboo becomes seventh Indian men’s race walker to qualify for Paris Olympics

India’s Ram Baboo achieved the men’s 20km race walk qualification mark for the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday after clocking a personal best time of 1:20.00 at the Dudinska 50 Meet in Slovakia.

Baboo, a Hangzhou Asian Games Mixed team 35km race walk bronze medallist, finished third at the event to dip below the Paris Olympics mark of 1:20.10.

https://twitter.com/afiindia/status/1768975891890078000

Baboo is the seventh Indian men’s race walker to qualify for the Paris Olympics after Vikash Singh, Paramjeet Singh Bisht, Akshdeep Singh, Suraj Panwar, Servin Sebastian and Arshpreet Singh.

However, every country is only allowed to send three athletes for the event. The Athletics Federation of India will now have to decide who makes the cut for Paris from the seven race walkers.

Priyanka Goswami is the only women’s race walker to have qualified for the Olympics after clocking below the qualifying standard of 1:29.20 in February last year. Munita Prajapati and Bhawan Jat are also in the running to qualify for the Olympics via World Rankings quota.