Paris Olympics 2024: MNREGA worker Ram Baboo scripts history, becomes 7th Indian racewalker to breach qualification mark

The 24-year-old Baboo's cutoff mark for Olympic qualification is 1:20:10. He became the first Indian athlete who finished on the podium in this meet.

Peru’s Cesar Augusto Rodriguez wins gold

On the other hand, Peru’s Cesar Augusto Rodriguez won the gold medal. He clocked one hour and 19 minutes (1:19:41) while Ecuador’s Brian Daniel Pintado clocked one hour 19 minutes and 44 seconds to bag the silver.

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An Asian Games bronze medallist, Baboo is also the seventh race walker from the country to breach the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifying standard.

Akshdeep Singh, Vikas Singh, Paramjeet Bisht, Suraj Panwar, Servin Sebastian and Arshpreet Singh have already achieved the milestone earlier.

Priyanka Goswami is the only female walker who has qualified for the quadrennial extravaganza. She achieved the feat at the previous year’s National Open Race Walking Championships in Jharkhand.

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Federation can send 3 athletes for Paris Olympics 

Each federation can only send a maximum of three athletes for an individual track and field event in the Olympics and it is the same for the men’s 20km race walk event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) will decide who will represent the country at the Paris Games 2024. The federation has announced that the final selection will be made in June.

Notably, Akshdeep, Arshpreet, Vikas, Paramjeet, and Servin, along with Eknath Turambekar, were initially listed for the Dudinska 50 race, but none of them participated. 

Baboo also holds the national record in the men’s 35km race walk with a time of 2:29:56, which he achieved at Dudinska 50 last year.

He used to work as a labourer under MNREGA during the Covid-19 lockdown. He also did the work of digging soil. Before this, he had also worked as a waiter in Varanasi. However, he disliked that job and felt that digging soil was better than being a waiter.

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