Priyanka Goswami Finishes 7th in Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix

National record holder Priyanka Goswami finished seventh in the 20km category at the Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix in Taicang on Sunday, recording her best time outside of the country.

Goswami, who has already qualified for the Paris Olympics, clocked 1 hour 29 minutes and 48 seconds to end the gruelling competition at seventh in the World Athletics Race Walking Tour gold label meet.

This was her best performance abroad and third best time of her career. She had earlier clocked 1:28:45s (NR) in 2021 and 1:28:50s in 2023 - both in Ranchi - as her two best times before Sunday.

Moreover, it was a tough field in Taicang with some of the best racewalkers competing in the event. There were five Chinese athletes in the top six, with Hangzhou Asian Games silver medallist Zhenxia MA taking the title with a time of 1:26:07s.

Zhenxia's compatriot Jiayu Yang, the 2017 world champion and Hangzhou Asian Games gold medallist, was second in 1:26:07s while 36-year-old four-time world champion and 2016 Olympics gold and 2020 Tokyo Games bronze winner Hong Liu was third with a timing of 1:26:47s.

Another veteran Chinese racewalker, Shijie Qeeyang, who won gold in the 2012 London Olympics, was fourth with a time of 1:27:05s.

The 27-year-old Goswami has been training in Australia for the last two months under race walk coach Brent Vallance at the high-altitude training centre near Canberra as part of her preparation for the upcoming Paris Olympics.