News: Athlete Irfan qualifies for Tokyo Olympics 2020

Indian athlete and national record holder KT Irfan became the first Indian from athletics to qualify for the next year’s Olympics while finishing fourth in the 20 km event of the Asian Race Walking Championships in Nomi, Japan. The 29-year-old clocked 1 hour 20 minutes and 57 seconds to finish inside the Olympic qualification standard of 1 hour and 21 minutes. The Olympics qualification period for race walk events and marathon race has begun from January 1 this year and will run till May 31, 2020. The Olympics qualification period for all other athletics events will start from May 1 this year and will run till June 29, 2020. The Kerala athlete holds the national record of 1:20:21 which he achieved during his 10th place finish at the 2012 Olympics in London. He also qualified for this year's World Championships as he bettered the qualifying mark of 1:22:30.