Sandeep 23rd in World Race Walking Cup, sets national record

New Delhi: Sandeep Kumar finished 23rd with a national record setting performance as Indian athletes produced a creditable show in the 50km event on the first day of the IAAF World Race Walking Cup at Taicang, China on Saturday. Sandeep clocked 3:56:22s to better Basanta Bahadur Rana`s earlier national record timing of 3:56:48s set during 2012 the London Olympics. Sandeep had a personal best of 4:02:19s before today`s effort.

The other Indians in the fray also did well with Manish Singh and Surinder Singh coming up with their personal best efforts of 4:02:08s and 4:09:17s while finishing 32nd and 37th respectively. Maniram Patel clocked 4:17:03s to end the race at 43rd. The four-member Indian team finished seventh in combined rankings and just missed out on getting prize money for their efforts. The top six in individual and team rankings get prize money. Sixty walkers took part in the event and 48 finished the race which was won by 2013 Moscow World Championships silver medalist Mikhail Ryzhov of Russia in world leading time of 3:39:05s. Another Russian Ivan Noskov was second in 3:39:38s while London Olympics silver medalist Jared Tallent of Australia was third in 3:42:48s.