Olympic-bound Bhawana Jat renamed the Asian 20 km Race Walk Championships from Indian team

Tokyo Olympic-bound Bhawana Jat was named to the Asian 20 km Race Walk Championships in a 13-member Indian team on Monday, to be held in Nomi, Japan on March 15.

One of five women named for the Asian event is the unheralded Bhawana, who qualified for Tokyo Olympics in 20 km race walk after pulling off a stunning win with a national record time at the National Championships in Ranchi on Saturday.

The other four women's race-walkers listed for the Asian Championships were Priyanka Goswami, Karamjit Kaur, Ravina and Sonal Sukhwal. And the 23-year-old Bhawana, who comes from the family of a farmer at Kabra village in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district, clocked 1 hour 29 minutes and 54 seconds to win the gold, well inside the 1:31:00 Olympic qualifying time. She wiped out the two-year-old national record of 1:31:29 which was in the name of Baby Soumya of Delhi.

Meanwhile, besides Devender Singh, Ganapathi Krishnan, Chandan Singh, Ek Nath Turambekar and K, the eight-member men's team has Ranchi National Championship winner Sandeep Kumar, silver medallist Rahul and bronze winner Vikash Singh. T. Irfan is inside.

Irfan, who pulled out halfway into the Ranchi contest citing muscle cramps, was included in the team as he already qualified for the Olympics.

The Indian team was picked by the Athletics Federation of India selection committee based on performance at the National Open Race Walking Championships held in Ranchi on February 15th and 16th.