Priyanka on a mission to elucidate her Walk of life

All Priyanka Goswami needs to do as of late is to ask all these she meets for the primary time a really “simple” query: “What do you know about race walking?”

After successful a historic silver within the 10,000m racewalking occasion on the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the 26-year-old is on a quest to alter folks’s notion of the game. Or type one.

Being the primary Indian lady to win a medal in race stroll on the Commonwealth Games, she has taken the onus upon herself to unfold consciousness concerning the sport.

“After winning a medal, we have been going to felicitations organised for us. The first thing I do is ask a very simple question: who knows about race walking?” she instructed the Indian Express on the sidelines of an occasion to mark HSBC financial institution partnering with the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to advertise girls athletes.

And that’s precisely what she did on the occasion on Monday. “I saw just four or five people raised their hands, so it’s an improvement,” she mentioned with amusing.

After successful a historic silver within the 10,000m racewalking occasion on the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the 26-year-old is on a quest to alter folks’s notion of the game. Or type one. (PTI)

So what’s the traditional response she will get to the query?

“Normally folks don’t know something concerning the sport and that’s what makes me somewhat offended as a result of we’ve got gained medals within the sport.

“Mostly people wonder why we walk weirdly. That’s the most common question I get. I have to explain to them that the rules of the sport say that we can’t bend our knees and have to have one foot on the ground at all times. I have to also tell them that while you run on your toes, in race walking, you have to land on your heel. People may dismiss racewalking as just walking, but it’s actually a very technical sport,” she says.

When she took up the game in 2011 as an alternative choice to gymnastics and athletics, Priyanka had no thought how technical the game could be. She too thought it was nearly strolling quick.

“I still don’t think my technique is even near perfection. It’s one event when you can’t rest on your laurels. There are judges constantly keeping an eye on you. My timing in Birmingham was 43 minutes (43:38.83) for the 10km meaning you have to maintain that technique and stride for so long. It’s very challenging,” she mentioned.

Silver 🥈it’s !!

Priyanka Goswami wins🥈in girls’s 10000m race stroll bettered her private greatest by whopping greater than 5 minutes !!!

What a race !!!

Many congrats 👏 to u…

So pleased with u 👍 #PriyankaGoswami #Athletics #CommonwealthGames2022 pic.twitter.com/T2TIEiP8hs

— Soug (@sbg1936) August 6, 2022

Birmingham was additionally the primary time since 2014 she competed on a monitor since her pet occasion, the 20km race-walk of which she’s a nationwide document holder, wasn’t a part of the Birmingham CWG. Race strolling is mostly a street race.

With a watch on the Asian Games that are postponed to subsequent yr and even the 2024 Paris Olympics, she has already begun coaching in Bengaluru.

So what’s her day by day coaching routine like?

“In the morning for 3 hours we’ve got a heavy race stroll exercise which consists of both climbs, pace exercise or endurance walks. In the night we spend round two hours simply specializing in approach.

Sometimes we additionally do the simple stuff like operating or swimming within the night,” she says in all sincerity, regardless of casually mentioning that operating and swimming are simpler than race strolling.
But as she says, it’s all about “hyping up your sport”.