BENGALURU: Tokyo-bound race walkers KT Irfan and Bhawna Jat, who were under focus owing to lack of form, underwent a fitness-cum-time trial mandated by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) at the SAI South Centre here on Friday.
The tests, held under the supervision of AFI senior vice-president Anju Bobby George, saw the two athletes complete a 10km distance on the synthetic track against set targets. Sources said while Bhawna managed to finish within the allotted time range, Irfan came up with a below-par performance.
"The two athletes were put through specific time trials. Bhawna completed the 10km distance in under 46 minutes plus while Irfan overshot by more than a minute. The Kerala athlete completed the trial in just over 42 minutes which is likely to put a question mark over his selection," sources told TOI.
Experts who followed the trial said Irfan's performance fell below expectations. "An athlete doing the first 10km of the men's race in 42 minutes will most probably end up with a time in the range of one hour, 24 to 25 minutes. Indian athletes rarely improve their time in the next half," they said.
The AFI, which has scheduled a trial for long jumper M Sreeshankar on July 21, is expected to take a final call on the three athletes after another review meeting based on their performance in the trials.
Irfan, 31, who finished 10th at the London Olympics in 2012, saw his national record of 1:20:21 being eclipsed by Sandeep Kumar at the National race walking championships in Ranchi in February this year. Irfan, who participated in the event, pulled out almost a kilometre from the finish line.
Friday's trial saw both the athletes react together to the starter's gun. Besides Anju, the trials were monitored by six technical officials from the Karnataka Athletics Association led by secretary Rajavelu. The SAI officials at the trials included high performance director Saju Joseph.
