Nairobi: India’s Amit Khatri won silver in the men’s 10,000m race walk event on Saturday, giving the country its second medal at the World U-20 Athletics Championships in Nairobi. The 17-year-old clocked 42:17.94s to come second. Earlier, India won bronze in the 4x400m mixed relay event.
With only two laps to go, Haryana-lad was leading the race, but he fell behind and had to settle for silver behind Kenya’s Wanyonyi Heristone (42:10.84s). Paul Mcgrath of Spain won bronze in 42:26.11s.
Khatri’s performance was hampered by the high altitude in the Kenyan capital, as he struggled for breath throughout the race. Nairobi is located at an elevation of around 1800m above sea level.
Congratulations on the medal win, Amit. A very good performance to bring home our second medal. Keep working hard. May you continue to excel in all your endeavours!
Jai Hind 🇮🇳 https://t.co/XqiVWyzCRq— P.T. USHA (@PTUshaOfficial) August 21, 2021
“It is not the result I expected but I am happy with the silver medal. Even though I came here five days before the event to acclimatize, the high altitude affected me,” Khatri said after his race. “At some point in the race, I would not breath properly but I am happy with the silver medal,” he added.
His coach, Chandan Singh, contended that Khatri’s Kenyan opponent had an advantage because he is familiar with the high altitude conditions in the area. “I feel Amit could have won the gold but the high altitude conditions had affected him. The Kenyan was training in those home conditions and it was advantageous to him.
“Amit was leading for the most part of the race but the Kenyan took a sudden lead around one and half laps to go. Amit could not anticipate that and could not catch up him up,” Chandan told PTI from Army Sports Institute in Pune.
Singh, who had been with Khatri since 2018, said he sent his ward to Nainital and Mukteshwar in Uttarakhand for five months of high altitude training last year after it was announced that Nairobi would host the World U-20 Championships.
This was the youngster’s first international competition, and he became only the fifth Indian athlete to win a medal at the World U-20 Athletics Championships, joining Hima Das and Neeraj Chopra.
