Ram Baboo breaches Paris Games qualification mark; seventh Indian male athlete to do so

India's Ram Babood breached the Paris Olympics qualification mark in the men's 20km race during the Dudinska 50 Meet in Slovakia. Also, this is the first instance when an Indian athlete has achieved a podium finish in the meet.

Dudince (Slovakia): Indian racewalker Ram Baboo secured a 2024 Paris Olympics quota after clinching a bronze medal in the men’s 20km race walk event at the Dudinska 50 Athletics competition 2024 here on Saturday.

Ram, the Asian Games medallist, crossed the finishing line in just one hour and 20 minutes (1:20:00), 10 seconds earlier than the Paris Olympics qualifying standard for the event. The International Olympics committee has set the standard qualification time at 1:20:10 to qualify for the event.

Peru's Cesar Augusto Rodriguez grabbed the gold medal by clocking 1:19:41s while Ecuador's Brian Daniel Pintado settled for a silver medal with a timing of 1:19:44s.

The 24-year-old set a new personal best record at the event. His previous personal best in the 20km race walk category was 1:21:04s. Earlier in January, he set the mark during the 2024 South Asian and Indian Race Walking Championships in Chandigarh.

Following his triumph, Baboo became the seventh Indian racewalker to breach the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifying standard.

Before him, Akshdeep Singh, Vikas Singh, Paramjeet Bisht, Suraj Panwar, Servin Sebastian and Arshpreet Singh have breached the qualifying mark.

However, each national federation can only send a maximum of three athletes for the men's 20km race walk event in the upcoming Summer Games.

At Dudinska 50 last year, Bamboo set the national record in men's 35 km race walk with a time of 2:29:56s.

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