IAAF World Championships: Irfan, Devender to compete in 20km race walk

The IAAF World Athletics Championships is slated to take place in Doha on 27 September. The 17th edition of the tournament will go on till 6 October. According to multiple reports, India are fielding a 25-member team for the competition. 

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20 Kilometres Men's Race Walk

The race walk event is a road race where participants try to complete the course in the quickest time. The finals for this year will take place on October 4 at 11:30 PM local time. The heat in Doha will definitely affect the performance that the participants are able to deliver. The winners at the 2017 games were Colombia's Eider Arevalo (Gold) and Brazil's Caio Bonfim (Bronze).

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The Japanese are fielding a pretty strong team which includes World Time Leader Toshikazu Yamanishi who has a record completion time of 1:17:15. Another Japanese contender is Koki Ikeda, the 20-year-old, who won the World University Games at Naples, earlier this year. Italy's Massimo Stano will also be a tough opponent to beat. Australia's Olympic bronze medallist Dane Bird-Smith is another contender who is very capable of performing spectacularly.

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Indian Representation

The Indians participating in the race are K.T. Irfan and Devender Singh. Irfan made headlines earlier this year as he became the first Indian to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He achieved this feat at the Asian Race Walking Championships in Nomi, Japan. The qualification time for the 2020 Olympics is 1 hour and 21 minutes. The qualification window will close on May 31, 2020. Irfan also won the National Open Race Walk Championships at Chennai, this year. Irfan holds the national record as he completed the race in 1:20:21 at the 2012 London Olympics. He is currently the only Indian to have qualified for Athletics at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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