National mark silver lining to Goswami’s medal

Priyanka Goswami doesn’t miss a chance to watch young athletes on the tracks at the Kailash Prakash Stadium in her hometown Meerut.

PREMIUM

Goswami’s humble and positive attitude has made her the darling of everyone in this western Uttar Pradesh city. Her admirers grew even though she finished 17th in race-walking in the Tokyo Olympics last year.

That spurred her to do better at the Commonwealth Games and even while doing high-altitude training at Cholpon-Ata, a resort town in Kyrgyzstan on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, Goswami was determined to medal in Birmingham.

Also Read | Time stands still around India’s only natural bowling green

And she did on Saturday in some style. Goswami shattered a six-year-old national record to win silver in the women’s 10,000m race walk. She clocked 43:38.82 at the Alexander Stadium. Khushbir Kaur’s 44:33.50 in 2017 was India’s previous best.

“I'm happier with the medal because no one in India before has won a medal in race walking here. India will now have an international mark in race walking,” said Goswami.

Goswami shaved nearly five minutes off her previous personal best of 48:30.35 to finish second behind Australia’s Jemima Montag, the 20km race walk champion from Gold Coast 2018, who won with a Games record time of 42:34.00. Kenya’s Emily Wamusyi Ngii clinched bronze with 43:50.00, a new African record.

The 26-year-old Goswami, who holds the national record in both the women’s 20km and 35km race walk, set the pace and led the eight-runner pack for the opening 4km before being overtaken by Montag and Ngii.

With Montag moving up a gear and building a seemingly unsurpassable lead, it seemed like a two-way race between Ngii and Goswami for the silver and bronze. After exchanging positions multiple times, Goswami finally broke away around the 9km mark. She had to contend with a warning on the final stretch but managed to hold on to the second place.

Goswami’s compatriot Bhawna Jat also clocked a personal best of 47:14.13 but finished last.

It was a big achievement for Goswami, especially after Tokyo and a 34th place finish at the World Championship at Oregon last month in the 20km race-walk. She had also ended 17th in the Gran Premio Cantones de La Coruna, the Spanish leg of the World Athletics Challenge-Race-Walking in May.

So what changed from Oregon? “I just changed my training schedule. I was training in Chula Vista, but I reconnected with my old coach Gurmeet (Singh) Sir in India. I would have sessions with him on WhatsApp and video calls. That made a big difference coming here,” she said.

At last year’s national championships in Ranchi, Goswami missed the Olympic qualifying time by 34 seconds, but having overcome the disruption caused by the pandemic, she returned to competition later and achieved it with a national record to boot. She clocked 1:28:45, shaving over a minute of the national record of 1:29:54 that was held by Jat on way to gold.

On Saturday, her father Madanpal Goswami, a former bus conductor with the UP State Roadways Transport Corporation, said: “This was what we were waiting for her. I too, was very disappointed at her not winning an international medal, especially at the Tokyo Games, and I was praying to God for this day to arrive,’ he said. “It’s a big day for all of us, and I have run out of words.”

Goswami is expected to get ₹75 lakh as per the policy of the Uttar Pradesh government to reward sportspersons from the state who are successful at quadrennial mega events.

Experience unrestricted digital access with HT Premium

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.