New Delhi: India's Gurmeet Singh and Babubhai Panocha have qualified for the 20 km walk at the 2012 London Olympics with impressive performances at the 18th Dublin International Grand Prix of Race Walking.
They also made the cut for the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea from August 27.
National champion Gurmeet Singh clocked 1:22:05, finishing 9th in the 20km event held at Phoenix Park, Dublin Sunday. Gurmeet bettered the 'A' standard of Olympic qualification 1:22:30.
Babubhai Panocha returned a personal best of 1:23:04 and fnished 11th. He bettered the 'B' standard of qualification (1:24:30). China's Wang Zhen (1:19:46) won the event.
In the 50 km walk, India's Basant Bahadur Rana barely missed the 'B' qualifying mark of of 4:09:00 as he clocked 4:10:51 and settled for the second place.
Another Indian, Chandan Singh, came fifth clocking 4:25:20.
The race was held under trying conditions with a heat wave making it difficult for the competitors to finish the race. Only seven of the 18 walkers completed the race. Finland's Antti Kempas won the race in 4:02:37.
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