Natl Games: AFI's race walk snub jolts hosts Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand is one of the strongest states in the sport.

- Avishek Roy

NEW DELHI: Race walking is one of the few good medal-winning events for the National Games hosts Uttarakhand, but it has surprisingly been left out of the athletics programme.

The decision of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has come as a jolt for race walkers and hosts Uttarakhand which is considered the cradle of the sport in India. In the previous two National Games in Gujarat and Goa, Uttarakhand won five medals from the sport.

It is learnt that the Uttarakhand Olympic Association and State's department of sport, which is involved in organising the National Games (Jan 28-Feb 14), have written to AFI to reinstate race walk for the Games.