‘Priyanka, abb slow nahi hona’: The story of India’s historic race-walk at CWG 2022 | Commonwealth Games 2022 News

NEW DELHI: If you look closely at race-walker Priyanka Goswami‘s picture standing on the Commonwealth Games podium in Birmingham wearing a historic silver, it would be difficult to miss what she’s holding in her left hand. Dressed in the colours of the Indian flag, it’s a statue of Lord Krishna in his ‘bal roop’ (childhood image), devotedly called ‘Bal Gopal’.
On Saturday, when India had its eyes on the wrestling arena in Birmingham, a piece of athletics history was being written by the 26-year-old devotee of Lord Krishna from Muzaffarnagar.
In gold-medal position for the first 4000m of the 10000m women’s race-walk, Priyanka lost the top spot to Australia’s Jemima Montag. But she had enough fuel in the tank to finish second for a historic silver medal with a personal best time of 43:38.83.
Saturday for Indian athletics became even more special and historic when Avinash Sable broke into Kenya’s dominance in the 3000m steeplechase to win a silver medal with a new national record.
With four medals so far in track and field — Tejaswin Shankar in high jump and Murali Sreeshankar in long jump being the others – this is now the best showing by Indian athletics in a CWG outside of India.

(Priyanka led the field until the 4000m mark – ANI Photo)
A national record holder in the 20km race walk, which is her pet event, Priyanka was walking her first race on track, instead of road, in years.
The 20km race walk is not part of the programme at Birmingham CWG, while the 10km version is not an Olympic event.
“It was a different feeling competing on track…I have done 20km and 35km, so 10km was not tough. I did the 35km at the World Championships in the USA last month, so I got confidence from there,” said Priyanka, talking to journalists from Birmingham in an online press conference. TimesofIndia.com was part of it.
For the first 4000m, she headed the pack and then was pushed to second place, before falling to third place at the 5000m mark.
“Before the race, I wanted to emulate what I had been doing in training, wanted to register my best time at the 5km mark,” she said.
“In one of the laps I got slow, (otherwise) I was mostly there in the second position. Montag was running behind me, wasn’t trying to overtake, I was shocked. I didn’t want to race slow. With the Kenyan (bronze medalist Emily Wamusyi Ngii), we were around each other,” said Priyanka, talking about the race action.

(Priyanka showing the statue of Lord Krishna and her nails painted with the tricolour, Olympic rings and the countries where she has travelled to compete – ANI Photo)
At the 5000m mark, Priyanka talked to herself and before touching the 9000m mark, she was back at No. 2.
“Priyanka paanch lap bache hain, abb slow nahi hona. Apne pe dhyan de, Kenya wali ladki pe dhyan nahi dena (five laps are left, don’t get slow now, focus on yourself, not on the Kenyan),” she told reporters about the promise she made to herself at the halfway mark.
“It’s tough to win a (race) walking medal at the international level. I have opened my account, that’s the bigger thing. There will be more in the time to come,” she almost vowed.
Priyanka got just one warning (yellow card) throughout the race, which is something race-walkers consider as an achievement. But she was unhappy about being warned even once when she had race-walked clean for 5 km.
“I was angry. I went for 6 km without warning…But I didn’t get perturbed, ignored it and just focused on my time,” she said.

(Photo: Instagram)
She, however, wants to remain focused on the 20 km event.
“Target is to give my personal best in 20km. Will put in the hard work (to achieve it), then there are the Asian Games and World Championships next year,” Priyanka added.
A girl who likes to pamper herself and make fashion statements, Priyanka joked at the mention of a modeling contract coming her way after this achievement.
“Woh to pata nhi, jab milega pakka bataungi (don’t know about that, will definitely tell you if I get it). But I like wearing what’s in fashion…Even before going for my races, I think of how to wear the kit, what hairstyle I should have,” she said with a smile.