Suraj Panwar Soren clinched the silver medal in the men’s 5000m race walk event at the Youth Olympic Games, to open India’s account in athletics in the third edition, here on Monday.
Many of the athletics events are being held in two stages and Suraj, who had finished second in the first stage in 20:23.30s, won the second stage 20:35.87 for the overall silver. Ecuador’s Oscar Patin, who had won the first stage in 20:13.69, won the gold after finishing second.
There had been doubts whether he would make the trip and according to the Athletics Federation of India, his entry was cleared late by the Asian association.
Suraj had finished second in the 10,000m race walk, behind China’s Xin Wang, at the Youth Olympics’ Asia Area qualification meet in Bangkok in July. Incidentally, Xin suffered a disqualification here.
Nandakumar disappoints
Meanwhile, in the men’s 800m, Sreekiran Nandakumar, who was ninth in the first stage in 1:52.42, finished 22nd overall after clocking a slow 2:06.51 in the second stage.
India has never won an athletics gold in the Youth Olympics, having claimed silvers through Arjun (discus) and Durgesh Kumar (400m hudles) in the inaugural edition at Singapore in 2010.
In boxing, India’s challenge ended early with former World champion Jyoti Gulia (51kg) losing her quarterfinal bout to Italy’s Martina La Piana.
(with inputs from Stan Rayan)
