| Bhawna Jat | |
| Birth Date: | 1 March 1996 |
| Birth Place: | Kabra, Rajsamand district, Rajasthan, India |
| Sport: | Track and field |
| Event: | 20 kilometres race walk |
| Pb: | 1:29:54 (2020 Ranchi) |
| Updated: | 26 February 2020 |
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]
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 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]
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.[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]