Template:Infobox sportsperson Bhawna Jat (born 3 January 1996) is an Indian racewalker who was the formar Indian national record holder for women's 20 kilometres race walk at 1 hour 29 minutes 54 seconds set in February 2020.
Early life
Jat was born on 3 January 1996 as the youngest of three children into a family of farmers. She picked up racewalking at the age of 13 when her physical education teacher Mr. Heera Lal Kumawat took her to a district-level athletics competition where slots were available only in the 3000 metres race walk; she finished second in the event.[1] In the subsequent years, she would train only in the early hours of the day in order to avoid conservative villagers from seeing her in shorts.[2] As her family was financially weak, she had to quit studies in college[3] and even compete barefoot during her early years.[1]
Career
Between 2014 and 2015, Jat won medals in zonal and national junior level competitions. In 2016, she landed a job with the Indian Railways as a ticket collector in Howrah, West Bengal.[1]
At the National Open Championships in February 2020, Jat broke the national record by clocking 1:29:54 and qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics which had a qualification standard of 1:31:00. The timing was an improvement of over eight minutes from her previous personal best set in October 2019[4] and over 23 minutes from her February 2019 National Open Championships time.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bhawana Jat's journey from grazing cattle to the Olympics. ESPN.in(16 February 2020).
- ↑ From practicing at 3am, Bhawna Jat is now living the race walking dream. Olympic Channel(19 February 2020).
- ↑ Rajasthan's Bhwana Jat sets new national record in race walking, qualifies for Tokyo Olympics. The New Indian Express(16 February 2020).
- ↑ Olympics spot secured, race walker Bhawana hopes for inclusion in TOPS. Sportstar(15 February 2020).
- ↑ 6TH NATIONAL OPEN RACE WALKING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019. Indian Athletics.