Three Indian Race Walkers Disqualified, Khushbir Finishes Fourth

Jakarta, Aug 29 (PTI) Khushbir Kaur failed to match up to her last edition's silver winning show by finishing fourth while three of her compatriots were disqualified in a disappointing show by India's 20km race walkers in the Asian Games here today.

Khushbir, who won a silver in the 2014 Asian Games, had to be content with a fourth-place finish with a time of 1 hour 35 minutes and 24 seconds, which was far below her 1:32:17 timing she had come up in New Delhi earlier this year.

In 2014, her silver winning time was 1:33:07. Khushbir has a personal best of 1:31:40.

China's Jiayu Yang took the gold in Games record time of 1:29:15 while her compatriot Shijie Qieyang (1:29:15) and Kumiko Okada (1:34:02) of Japan won the silver and bronze respectively.

The other Indian in the fray in the women's 20km race walk, Baby Soumya was disqualified after receiving her third warning for 'loss of contact' after the 14km mark. Her disqualification was under the IAAF Rule 230.7c.

In the men's 20km race walk event also, both national record holder K T Irfan and Manish Rawat were disqualified in similar situations as Soumya.

Both Irfan and Rawat received their third warning after the 12km mark for 'loss of contact'. Their disqualification was also under the IAAF Rule 230.7c.

Under rules of race walking competition, one foot must be in contact with the ground at all times. An athlete's back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched the ground. Doing so will result to a 'loss of contact' and awarding of a 'red card'.

Three judges handing 'red cards' for violations results in a disqualification. A scoreboard will be placed on the race course so that competitors can see their violation status.

Sandeep Kumar will compete in men's 50km race walk event tomorrow.

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