Bhawna Jat (born 1 March 1996) is an Indian racewalker[1] from Rajasthan who participated in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, finishing on 32nd position in 20 kilometres race walk.[2]
 Bhawna Jat in 2021 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 March 1996 Kabra, Rajsamand district, Rajasthan, India |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Track and field |
| Event | 20 kilometres race walk |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best | 1:29:54 (2020 Ranchi) |
| Updated on 26 February 2020 | |
Early life
editJat 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 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.[3] 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.[4] As her family was financially weak, she had to quit studies in college[5] and even compete barefoot during her early years.[3]
Career
editBetween 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.[3]
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[6] and over 23 minutes from her February 2019 National Open Championships time.[7]
In the 2022 Commonwealth Games, she recorded her personal best in the 10000 meters race walk and ended 8th. [8]
Jat was issued with a sixteen month competition ban to run from August 2023 to December 2024 by the Indian National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) in relation to an anti-doping rule violation due to whereabouts failures.[9]
References
edit- ^ "India's Bhawna Jat makes the Olympic cut in 20km race walk". India Today. 15 February 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
- ^ "Priyanka Goswami 17th, Bhawna Jat 32nd in women's 20km race walk, Gurpreet fails to finish in men's event". indiatvnews.com. PTI. 6 August 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
- ^ a b c Selvaraj, Jonathan (16 February 2020). "Bhawana Jat's journey from grazing cattle to the Olympics". ESPN.in. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ Basu, Suromitro (19 February 2020). "From practicing at 3am, Bhawna Jat is now living the race walking dream". Olympic Channel. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ Asnani, Rajesh (16 February 2020). "Rajasthan's Bhwana Jat sets new national record in race walking, qualifies for Tokyo Olympics". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ "Olympics spot secured, race walker Bhawana hopes for inclusion in TOPS". Sportstar. 15 February 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ "6th National Open Race Walking Championships 2019" (PDF). Indian Athletics. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ "Women's 10,000m Race Walk - Final". Birmingham2022.com. 6 August 2022. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
- ^ "Olympian Bhawna Jat gets 16-month ban by NADA for whereabouts failures". Olympics.com. 23 August 2024. Retrieved 22 September 2024.