India’s Parayil Jalan and Harminder Singh failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics in the 20 km walk, finishing fifth and seventh in the event in Leamington, England. This is the second time in the last five weeks that they were unsuccessful in their attempt to achieve the qualification mark.Jalan had a time 1:27:48, three minutes slower than eventual winner, Spaniard David Dominguez who clocked 1:24:16. The B-qualification mark for the Olympics is 1:24:30. Harminder's time was 1:29:15 while Chandan Singh, the third Indian in the field, was ninth with 1:30:58. India’s national record holder in the event, Babubhai Ponocha, did not not finished the race. Babubhai had set the national record of 1:23.40 last year in Jamshedpur.Even in the 50 km walk, national record holder Basant Bahadur Rana finished ninth at 4:19:37, far below his personal best of 4:10.42 clocked in in February at Patiala. The B qualification mark in this event is 4:7:00.
