Kochi: The Bristow Road (Old Airport Road) in Wellington Island was not located onthe busy part of Kochi. However the early hours of Saturday morning witnessed a beeline of activity on the port-controlled enclosure where the 2nd National Open Race Walking competitions commenced today.

As much as 48 race walkers set their foot on the starting line for men’s 20 km event which was flagged off by Mr C.K. Valson, Secretary-General, Athletics Federation of India. All the key players of the event, including the defending champion Gurmeet Singh and national record-holder K.T. Irfan, have taken part in the race.

Gurmeet made an early lead of about 100m from the rest of the field and maintained it till the end. A bunch of 10 walkers, including Irfan and former national champion Babubhai Panocha, followed him in pursuit to take leading positions as well as to qualify for the Indian Team to the next month’s Asian 20 km Race Walking championships at Nomi City, Japan.

Fifteen minutes later a small group of 17 female race walkers have made their way in the women’s race. Here again the national champion and record-holder Khushbir Kaur, representing Oil and Natural Gas Commission, took the lead role and was about 50m ahead of the other ladies.

The walkers had to complete 10 laps on the 2 km loop course marked on one side of the Bristow Road as the other side were being used for vehicular traffic. Although the morning weather was pleasant for walkers, the sloppy part of the road curtailed their tempo and rhythm in a huge way.

Alexander Artsybashev, the coach attached with the Indian camp for race walking, voiced concern over the issue and pointed out that had there been the race conducted over the middle portion of the road there would have been better timing by the walkers and lesser chances for injury.

Kerala’s former national medallist K.J. Sandhya, who finished seventh in the Commonwealth Games at Delhi four years ago, was the first walker to withdraw from the race after having completed just one lap on the course. “I was not fit enough, moreover the sloppy course put things difficult for me” she revealed afterwards.

In spite of delivering a better performance (1:36:25) than her last year’s winning time, the women’s victor Khushbir Kaur sustained groin injury and had to be carried away on stretcher after the race.

Gurmeet Singh successfully defends the men’s title with a time of 1 hour 22 minutes 58 seconds, which was just 19 secs behind the World Leading performance of the year registered by Dane Bird-Smith of Australia while winning the Oceania championships at Hobart on last Sunday (2 Feb). With this win Gurmeet assured a place on the Indian Team to Asian championships at Nomi City once again where he earlier won a silver and bronze medal each in the last two years.

Kerala’s Birthday boy K.T. Irfan, who was on spotlight ever-since after his incredible tenth place finish at London Olympics in 2012, had to be satisfied with his runner-up position here (1:23:23) also complained about the sloppy patch of the road for his below par show. Tamil Nadu’s K. Ganapathi finished third (1:23:34) to complete the podium.

Gujarat’s Babubhai Panocha, one of the pre-race favourites to win here, initially placed second behind Gurmeet Singh on the earlier stages of the race but eventually finished seventh.

In the women’s race Railway walker Rani Yadav finished second in 1:41:24 whereas her teammate and former national champion L. Deepmala Devi was third at 1:42:34.

The men’s 50 km walk and 10 km race walk for junior categories (under-20) will be held tomorrow.