New Delhi, April 9: A 12-member Indian squad, led by Ram Baboo and Manju Rani, will compete in the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Brasilia, Brazil, on April 12.
The other members of the Indian team are Sandeep Kumar, Hardeep, Sahil, Servin Sebasthiyan, Akshdeep Singh among men, and Payal, Priyanka Goswami, Mansi Negi, Munita Prajapati, Ravina among women.
The athletes are leaving for Brazil Thursday night after their visas were cleared late in the evening.
In this edition, there are no 20km and 35km race walking events. They are replaced by a new programme featuring the half marathon and marathon as well as 10km event for U-20. In addition to competing as individuals, athletes also represent their nation, chasing team titles across the events.
Each nation enters a small group of walkers in a race. In senior competitions, a team can include up to five athletes, but only the top three finishers actually count towards the team score. To be eligible for the team
result, a country must have three finishers to make up a scoring team. If they do not, those athletes still count in the individual race, but the team is effectively out of contention. The team score is the sum of the finishing positions of the three scoring athletes. In junior events, the top two finishers of each country count towards the team score. (PTI)
