India's [ Images ] K T Irfan finished a creditable 10th in the men's 20km walk, setting a new national record in the process, at the London [ Images ] Olympics [ Images ], on Saturday.
He clocked 1:20.21s in a field of 56 walkers, bettering the old national record of 1:20.35s, which stood in the name of Gurmeet Singh.
- London Olympics 2012 - Complete coverage
Gurmeet finished 33rd with a timing of 1:23.34s while the third Indian in the fray, Baljinder Singh, was 43rd in 1:25.39s.
Irfan was placed 27th after the six-km mark but went ahead to fifth after eight kms. He could not maintain his place after that though he hung on to the leading pack for a while.
His performance was in improvement on his earlier personal best of 1:22.09s, which he recorded in the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Russia [ Images ], in May.
All the three Indians had qualified for the Olympics after achieving the 'A' qualification standard.
Ding Chen of China won the gold in an Olympic record timing of 1:18:46s while the silver and bronze went to Erick Barrondo (1:18.57) of Guatemala and Zhen Wang (1:19.25) of China.
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