Naib subedar Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) is a term used for a group of military ranks which is higher than havildar ( non commissioned officer) and lower than lieutenant ( commissioned officer). The term is only used by Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Se ...

Irfan Kolothum Thodi (born 8 February 1990) is an Indian athlete and a

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

junior Commissioned Officer Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) is a term used for a group of military ranks which is higher than havildar (non commissioned officer) and lower than lieutenant (commissioned officer). The term is only used by Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Sen ...

(JCO) from

Malappuram Malappuram (also Malapuram) () is a city in the Indian state of Kerala, spread over an area of including the surrounding suburban areas. The first municipality in the district formed in 1970, Malappuram serves as the administrative headquarter ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. Irfan had competed in the Federation Cup at

Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the '' Qila Mubarak'' (the 'Fortunate Castle') construct ...

, clocking a personal best of 1:2:09 in 2012. At the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, he set the Indian national record in the 20 km walk with a timing of 1:20:21 and ranked 10th. This was also the first time, since Zora Singh's 8th position finish in Roma 1960, that any of the Indian track and field athletes had finished in the top 10 at the Olympics. He did not participate in the 2016 Rio Olympics though he had qualified, owing to a stress fracture.In Tokyo Olympics 2020, he finished a disappointing 51st with a timing of 1:34:41. In March 2013, Irfan finished 5th in the IAAF World 20 km Race Walking Challenge event held at

Taicang Taicang is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China. The city located in the south of the Yangtze River estuary opposite Nantong, being bordered by Shanghai proper to the south, while the river also delineat ...

, China. KT Irfan qualified for Tokyo Olympics in the race walking event of athletics after finishing fourth in the 20 km event at the

Asian Race Walking Championships The Asian Race Walking Championships is an annual race walking competition for athletes representing countries from Asia, organized by the Asian Athletics Association (AAA). It was established in 2006 and has featured races for senior men (20&nbs ...

in Nomi, Japan. KT Irfan was the first Indian from athletics to book a spot in the Tokyo Olympics. He finished 51st in the event.

Achievements

* 2011-Inter State Senior National Athletic Championship-''Silver''-01:30:31 * 2011-Open National Athletic Championship-''Gold''-01:27:46 * 2012-Federation Cup Senior Athletic Championship-''Gold''-01:22:14 (new meet record) * 2012-World Race Walking Cup-''19th''-01:22:09 (Qualified for London Olympics) * 2012- London Olympics-''10th''-01:20:21 (New National Record) * 2013- IAAF World Race Walking Challenge-''5th''-01:20:59 * 2013-Participated in the

World Athletics Championships The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

, Moscow * 2017 Max Bupa Race Walking championship ''Gold''-01:22:43 (Delhi) * 2017-

-''Bronze''-01:20:59 (Japan - Nomi) * 2017-Participated in the

-''23rd''-1:21:40 (London)

References

External links

* * 1990 births Living people Indian male racewalkers Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of India Athletes from Kerala World Athletics Championships athletes for India Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games People from Malappuram Asian Games competitors for India Commonwealth Games competitors for India {{India-athletics-bio-stub