Gandhinagar, October 5: Uttar Pradesh's Ram Baboo chose the National Games platform to draw attention to himself with a National record when winning the men's 35km Race Walk at IIT Gandhinagar on Tuesday (October 4).
Baboo, who is an unemployed Physical Education graduate, finished the race in 2 hours 36 minutes 34 seconds, breaking the time set by record holder Juned Khan of Haryana. It is the fifth National record set at the Games and the third in Track and Field sport.
Earlier, women and men's Pole Vault records were set by Rosy Meena Paulraj (Tamil Nadu) and Siva Subramaniam (Services) respectively.
Ram Baboo started well and looked set to finish with a faster time but said the rising heat, as the race progressed, slowed him down. The 23-year-old said he was pleased that he could beat Juned Khan with more than three and a half minutes to spare.
"I will keep working hard to replicate such time on an international platform too," he said.
An injury in 2018 had forced Ram Baboo to stop his pursuit of running and take to Race Walking. He was the inaugural champion in National Open Championships in Warangal last year when he pegged the National Record at 2:46:31.00.
Though he clocked a faster time of 2:41:30.00 in the National Race Walking Championships in Ranchi this year, he was unable to match strides with Juned Khan who set the record at 2:40:16.00.
Source: Media Release