Gurmeet Singh became first Indian to win Gold Medal in Asian 20 Kilometer Race Walk

Gurmeet Singh on 20 March 2016 became the first Indian athlete to win a gold medal in the Asian 20 Kilometer (km) Race Walk Championships.
•    His feat was the first time in 34 years that an Indian won a gold in either an Asian Championships or Asian Games in this event.
•    Hakam Singh and Chand Ram won a Gold medal each in 20-km road walk in 1978 and 1982 Asian Games respectively. Since then, no Indian won a Gold medal at the continental level in this event.
•    Gurmeet Singh took 1 hour 20 minutes and 29 seconds to complete the race while his close competitor Isamu Fujisawa of Japan took 1:20:49 with close fight in the last 5-km. Georgiy Sheiko of Kazakhstan won the bronze medal in 1:21:52.
•    He was sixth time lucky as he finally stood atop the podium after winning 1 Silver and two bronze medals in his earlier five attempts in this championships.
•    He finished seventh in his first appearance in 2011, silver in 2012, a bronze each in 2013 and 2014 and ninth in 2015.
•    In the women's 20-km walk race event, National Games champion and Rio Games-bound Sapna finished fourth in a time of 1:35:57.
•    Rui Liang of China won the gold in 1:28:43 and Kumiko Okada of Japan (1:30:03) and South Korean Jeongeun Lee (1:33:53) took the silver and bronze respectively.