Indian race walkers take Kyrgyzstan route to Eugene World Athletics Championships

Kyrgyzstan’s summer resort of Cholpon-Ata, a small city situated on the north shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, will be home to an elite Indian race walking squad for nearly a month. The national team, preparing for next month’s Eugene World Athletics Championships, reached Kyrgyzstan on June 13 and will practice in the salubrious climate of Cholpon-Ata for more than three weeks.

Cholpon-Ata has ideal weather due to an elevation of 1600m in the summer. There are several resorts and sandy beaches.

“The local weather conditions are good for logging miles,” Olympian race walker Priyanka Goswami told Sportskeeda from Cholpon-Ata. “The camp will continue until the World Athletics Championships.”

The national race walking camp was in progress at Patiala’s National Institute of Sports in Punjab, but shifted to Cholpon-Ata last week due to ideal weather conditions for long distance practice, Priyanka added.

The nine-member Indian race walking squad, including three female athletes, will be training there to prepare for the Eugene World Athletics Championships, scheduled to start on July 15 in Oregon, USA.

India’s foreign coach Tatiana Sibileva, who is with the national team in Kyrgyzstan, said that she doesn’t want to discuss future plans or team strategy at the moment.

Priyanka, a national record holder in women’s 20km race walk, is one of the Indian athletes to have achieved automatic qualification time for the 2022 World Athletics Championships.

Ramandeep Kaur, who specializes in 35km, and Ravina (20km) are the other two female athletes in the Kyrgyzstan camp.

Bhawna Jat, the second female athlete to have qualified for the Worlds in the women’s 20km race walk, looks doubtful at the moment as she is nursing an injury. Unfit Bhawna wasn’t selected by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for an international exposure camp in Kyrgyzstan.

Seasoned Army race walker Sandeep Kumar has also qualified for the Eugene World Athletics Championships in the men’s 20km race walk event.

Promising race walkers Suraj Panwar and Juned Khan are among other core groups of male athletes attending the national camp in Kyrgyzstan.

In the build-up to the World Championships, the core group of Indian race walkers didn’t perform up to their potential at the La Coruna World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold event held in Spain. Priyanka blamed it on a stiff hamstring for a not-so-encouraging performance in Spain.

“I pulled my hamstring and couldn’t do my best in Spain,” Priyanka said. “But I’m all focused for the next month’s World Athletics Championships.