Ram Baboo and Manju Rani win the 42km race walk added to the Indian Open

The 13th Indian Open Race Walking Competition was held on February 21 at Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh, and it produced two home winners in the event at the centre of the meet. Ram Baboo took the men's 42km in 3:09:17 and Manju Rani the women's 42km in 3:33:24, according to The Statesman's report and the results published by the Athletics Federation of India. SportzPulse reported the first day's results with the same figures.

1. 1.Men's 42km: Ram Baboo 3:09:17, Sandeep Kumar 3:11:18
2. 2.Women's 42km: Manju Rani 3:33:24, Priyanka Goswami 3:37:25
3. 3.Men's 10km: Nitin Gupta 41:44
4. 4.Women's 10km: Reshma Patel 46:19

The 42km is new to the AFI's calendar this season, and it changes what a national championship can be used for. A 20km win establishes fitness over a short distance; a 42km win, under the same judging and disqualification rules, is closer to the demand of an international road race. The Statesman reported that Baboo, aged 26, and Rani are both targeting the Asian Games in Japan later in the year, and that the event was introduced with that in mind.

The other result worth noting is Sandeep Kumar finishing second. He is the 2022 Commonwealth champion and an Olympian, and a runner of that calibre taking second behind a 26-year-old in a national championship indicates how competitive the men's 42km field has become.

Both winners have now won at three successive Asian Games distances: Baboo and Rani took bronze in the 35km mixed team race at the 2022 Asian Games in China, and the pair have been the country's strongest race walkers since. The new event is an attempt to test them over a duration closer to championship road racing.