K T Irfan becomes first Indian from athletics to qualify for Tokyo Olympics
New Delhi: National record holder KT Irfan Sunday became the first Indian from athletics to qualify for the next year's Olympics while finishing fourth in the 20 km event of the Asian Race Walking Championships in Nomi, Japan.
The 29-year-old Irfan clocked 1 hour 20 minutes and 57 seconds to better the Tokyo Olympics qualification standard of 1 hour 21 minutes.
The Olympics qualification period for race walk events and marathon race has begun from January 1 this year and will run till May 31, 2020. The Olympics qualification period for all other athletics events will start from May 1 this year and will run till June 29, 2020.
No other Indian from athletics has so far qualified for Tokyo Olympics.
Irfan, who has a personal best as well as national record of 1:20:21 which he did during his 10th place finish in 2012 Olympics, also qualified for this year's World Championships (September 27-October 6) in Doha, Qatar as he bettered the qualifying mark of 1:22:30.
The Kerala race walker had won the 20 km event in the National Open Race Walk Championships in Chennai last month with a time of 1:26:18.
He was one of the two Indian athletes who were expelled from the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games for not adhering to the 'no needle policy' of the Games. He was disqualified in the 20 km race walk event of the 2018 Asian Games after receiving his third warning for "loss of contact".
Japan's Toshikazu Yamanishi won the 20 km race walk event with an impressive time of 1:17:15 while Kazakhstan's Georgiy Sheiko and Korea's Byeongkwang Choe were second and third in 1:20:21 and 1:20:40 respectively.
The Asian and World record in men's 20 km race walk stands in the name of Japanese Yusuke Suzuki who clocked 1:16:36 in the 2015 edition of the same championships in Nomi.
Two other Indians, Devinder Singh and Ganapathi Krishnan also qualified for the World Championships as they clocked 1:21:22 and 1:22:12 respectively. They had finished second and fifth in the Chennai National Race Walk Championships with timings of 1:26:19 and 1:26:43.
In the women's 20 km race walk event, Soumya Baby finished fourth with a timing of 1:36:08, well outside Olympics qualifying standard of 1:31:00 and World Championships qualifying standard of 1:33:30.
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No issue can be resolved through military conflict: PM Modi
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called for a "swift end" to the conflicts in West Asia and Ukraine, saying no issue can be resolved through military confrontation.
Modi made the remarks after holding wide-ranging talks with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
"India and Finland, both, believe in the rule of law, dialogue, and diplomacy. We are in agreement that no issue can be resolved through military conflict alone," he said. "Be it Ukraine or West Asia, we will continue to support the swift end of conflicts and every effort towards peace," Modi said in his media statement.
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In the talks, the two sides also agreed to accord India-Finland relations in digitalisation and sustainability as a strategic partnership.
"This partnership, from AI to 6G telecom, from clean energy to quantum computing, will give momentum and energy to our cooperation in many high-tech areas," he said. Modi said the India-EU free trade agreement will bolster trade ties between India and Finland.
"This agreement will further strengthen trade, investment, and technology cooperation between India and Finland," he said.
Finnish President Stubb began a four-day visit to India on Wednesday with an aim to shore up bilateral cooperation across a wide spectrum of areas, including trade, investment and critical technology.
