Bhubaneswar, Jun 26: Experienced Uttar Pradesh athlete Munita Prajapati overcame the discomfort caused by excruciating heat and humidity here to win the women’s half marathon gold medal but missed the tough Asian Games qualification mark on the third day of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships on Friday.
The 24-year-old clocked a timing of 1:45.05 seconds to cover the 21.09km course but missed the Asian Games qualifying mark of 1:37.20 set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
Her personal best is 1:39.26 which she clocked while finishing second at the Indian Race Walking Championships in Chandigarh in February this year.
Another Uttar Pradesh athlete Reshma Patel won the silver with a time of 1:45.48, while Sejal Anil Singh (1:46.31) of Maharashtra was third.
National record-holder and Commonwealth Games-bound Ravina of Haryana was fourth with 1:48.56.
The Asian Games qualifying time of 1:37.20 set by the AFI is, in fact, tougher than the national record time of 1:39.15, achieved by Ravina while winning the Indian Race Walking Championships in Chandigarh in February.
“The qualifying time is not possible in this weather. It’s very humid and warm here. My skin feels like it’s burning. I have to drench myself with water after every lap, which tightens my body. But I tried. The road is fine, but it’s a little bumpy. We also train on an up-and-down road in Bengaluru (SAI Centre),” Prajapati said.
The temperature in Bhubaneswar at the start of the event at 5:30am was around 28 degrees celsius with humidity at over 90 per cent amid overcast conditions.
Asian Games host Japan is also expected to be quite hot and humid when the event is held there beginning September 19.
Prajapati is hoping that the AFI selection committee will consider the weather conditions here while picking the Asian Games team.
“I have also done 1:39.26 (at the Indian Race Walking Championships) in February. I hope that performance will also be taken into account,” said Prajapati who trains under foreign coach Ronald Weigel, Gurmeet Singh and Preeti Chaudhary.
The uncharacteristically difficult qualification mark set by AFI could also be because of the low medal chances of Indian athletes in this event.
Twenty-five Asian athletes have clocked better than 1:37.20, the AFI’s qualifying time, so far this season, though 20 of them are from China, three from Japan and two from Kazakhstan.
A country can send a maximum of two athletes in a track and field event in the Asian Games.
Prajapati was one of the members of the Indian women’s 20km walk team that won a historic medal — a bronze — at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in 2022.
Ravina and Bhawna Jat were the other members of that team.
“My target was Commonwealth Games (10,000m event in Glasgow), but I missed that. I won a bronze in the Federation Cup last month and that timing was not enough,” Prajapati said after her race.
The Federation Cup in Ranchi was the selection event for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow from July 23 to August 2.
Instead of the 20km or half marathon race walk event, the Commonwealth Games will have the 10,000km race, to be held on track and not on road.
“I am competing here for the Asian Games but the timing is not good due to weather here. I was told I have to get first position to get into the Asian Games. We’ll see what happens,” he said. (PTI)
