Basanta Bahadur Rana set a national record of 3:56:48s while finishing 36th in the men’s 50km walk of the Olympics on Saturday.
It was the second national record by an Indian in the walk events here, as K.T. Irfan had bettered the National mark while finishing 10th in the 20km event earlier.
Rana, who hails from Nepal and is employed in the Indian Army, had gained national attention in 2008 when he timed his first national record in the 50km walk at Patiala with a time of 4:10:42.
He was close to the Olympic qualification mark (4:09:00) in Dublin last year, but missed it clocking 4:10.51.
Rana qualified for the Olympics by finishing 32nd in the World Cup in Saransk, Russia, last May, clocking 4:02:13, the national record that he bettered on Saturday.
Agencies add: The 32-year-old two-time world champion, Sergey Kirdyapkin of Russia, timed 3:35:59 to win the title. Australia’s Jared Tallent, who took a second successive silver, was 54 seconds behind, while Si Tianfeng of China took the bronze 1:17 seconds adrift.
Kirdyapkin succeeded Italy’s disgraced defending champion Alex Schwazer, who was withdrawn from the Italian team before the Olympics for failing a drugs test.
