Priyanka Goswami becomes first Indian woman to win a medal in race walk, clinches silver

Birmingham: Priyanka Goswami on Saturday scripted history as she became the first Indian woman to win a medal in race walk with a silver in 10,000m event at the Commonwealth Games here.

Goswami clocked a personal best time of 43:38.83s to finished second behind Jemima Montag (42:34.30) of Australia. Emily Wamusyi Ngii (43:50.86) of Kenya took the bronze.

The other Indian in the fray, Bhawna Jat finished eighth and last with a personal best time of 47:14.13.


Harminder Singh was the first Indian to have won a medal in race walk -- bronze -- in the 20km event in 2010 CWG in Delhi.

Tokyo Olympian Priyanka clocked 43:38.82, a new Indian national record, to claim her podium place. Khushbir Kaur, with 44:33.5, had held the NR since 2017. The Indian improved her previous personal best of 48:30.35 by almost five minutes to win the medal.

Priyanka's medal is India's third in the athletics event of CWG 2022 after Tejaswin Shankar (bronze in high jump) and M Sreeshankar (silver in long jump).

The 26-year-old Priyanka, who holds the national record in both the women's 20km and 35 km race walk, set the pace of the race early on and led the eight-woman group for the opening 4kms before being overtaken by Jemima Montag and Ngii.

With Montag moving up a gear and building up a seemingly unsurpassable lead, it seemed like a two-way race between Ngii and Priyanka for the silver and bronze.

After exchanging positions multiple times, the Indian finally broke away around the 9km mark but also had a warning to contend with for the final stretch. However, Priyanka held out to cross the finish line.

With PTI/IANS Inputs