Indian walkers give below par performances make unceremonious exit from games

Rio de Janeiro:  Away from the limelight, which was hogged by the star of day P.V.Sindhu, some of the remnants of Indian athletic squad went through the motion of participating in the Games with another set of below par showing. The shape of things to come  was evident the way  20 km  woman walker  Khushbir Kaur  who came close to  rewrite  her on  national record   of  1:33.07 ,which she had set  at the 2014  Asian Games while wining a silver medal. ended her  event. Khushbir clocked   1:40:33 to be placed 54th. The other Indian in the fray, Sapna Punia, did not finish the race, dropping out after the 8km mark. Khushbir was 43rd after the 2km mark among a field of 74 athletes before completing the 6km mark with a timing of 28:04. The Indian who  timed  1:09.00 to complete the 14km mark, received a caution for a bent knee before she finished the remaining 6kms, 11:58 behind leader Hong. In  men's  50 Km  Men  walk , National champion  Sandeep Kumar   did no better .He timed  4 hours 7 minutes and 55 seconds,   to finish   35^th which was 26:57  behind the gold medalist Matej Toth of Slovakia. 30-year old Sandeep had set up a national record with 3:56. 22 in the IAAF Race walking in China last year. China's Hong Liu won the gold in 3:40:50  . In the men's 50km event, world champion Toth managed to beat 2012 London Olympics gold medalist Jared Tallent of Australia into second place with a time of 3:40:58. Toth, 33, moved past the Australian in the latter stages of a race. The Australian racer clocked 3:41:16. Canada's Evan Dunfee (3:41:38) settled with a bronze  and did no better.