Priyanka, Vikash win silver and bronze medal in women's and men's 20km race walk
Bangkok: Priyanka Goswami and Vikash Singh won silver and bronze medals in the women's and men's 20km race walk events respectively on the final day of the Asian Athletics Championships here on Sunday.
National record holder Priyanka clocked 1 hour 34 minutes and 24 seconds to finish second in the women's 20km race walk event behind Yang Liujing (1:32:37) of China.
Yukiko Umeno of Japan took the bronze with a time of 1:36:17.
The 27-year-old Priyanka's time, though, was well outside her personal best of 1:28:45, which she had clocked in 2021.
Another Indian in the fray, Bhawna Jat finished fifth with a time of 1:38:26.
In the men's 20km event, Vikash clocked 1:29:32 to take the bronze medal. Yutaro Murayama (1:24:40) of Japan won the gold while Wang Kaihua (1:25:29) of China took the silver medal.
National record holder Akshdeep Singh did not finish the race as he was disqualified by the judges.
The 27-year-old Vikash has a personal as well as season's best time of 1:20:05. It was his first international medal.
Both Priyanka, who had won a silver in 10,000m race walk in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and Vikash have already qualified for the World Championships (August 17-29) in Budapest, Hungary, and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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Tax money pays for free ration scheme but BJP trying to take credit, says Mayawati
Lucknow (PTI): Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati hit out at "BJP and company" on Thursday, saying they want to take credit for providing free rations to the country's poor.
"Far from freeing the people of the country from rising inflation, poverty, unemployment and backwardness, people of BJP and company are bent on extracting electoral gains for giving the poor a little bit of ration. This is not right as this is not kindness," she wrote in Hindi on the social media platform 'X'.
"The free ration to the poor is not a favour by the BJP or the government, it comes from the tax money paid by the people. Therefore, it is inappropriate to make fun of the poor by asking them for votes in return...," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister added in another post.
BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, list the government's free ration scheme in every political rally. The party has even mentioned in its manifesto that it will continue the scheme till 2029 after coming to power.
The Congress claims that it brought the law to ensure food security to the poor. Party president Mallikarjun Kharge said at a joint press conference with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday that on coming to power, they will not just improve the quality of the ration but also double its quantity.
