Pause, rewind, relay: Men’s & women’s teams confirm Paris berth

PTI

Nassau (Bahamas), May 6

The Indian men’s and women’s 4x400 metres relay teams qualified for the Paris Olympics after finishing second in their respective second-round heats at the World Athletics Relays here today.

In the women’s competition, the quartet of Rupal Chaudhary, MR Poovamma, Jyothika Sri Dandi and Subha Venkatesan clocked 3 minutes and 29.35 seconds to finish second behind Jamaica (3:28.54) in heat No. 1 to book a Paris ticket.

Later, the men’s squad of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal, Arokia Rajiv and Amoj Jacob finished with a timing of 3 minutes and 3.23 seconds to also finish second in their heat, behind USA (2:59.95).

The top two teams in each of the three heats in the second round qualified for the Olympics.

It was a sort of a surprise that the women’s team qualified as the focus was more on the men’s team which has broken the Asian record in back-to-back global events — Tokyo Olympics and 2023 World Championships — as well as winning 2023 Asian Games gold.

The Indian women’s team had finished fifth in the first-round qualifying heat on Sunday with a time of 3 minutes and 29.74 seconds.

The men’s team had failed to finish in the first-round qualifying heat after second leg runner Rajesh Ramesh pulled out midway due to cramps. Arokia took the place of Ramesh in the team and ran the third leg after Anas and Ajmal.

The men’s team was in the third position when anchor leg runner Jacob took the baton from Arokia but the Delhi boy ran a fantastic race to overtake his Mexican opponent and finish second.

It was not about the timing but more about the Olympics qualification for the men’s team, which ran 3:00.25 at the Tokyo Olympics for the then Asian record, and bettered it during the 2023 Worlds with yet another Asian record of 2:59.05. Today’s timing was well below the team’s best.

India had given a mighty scare to the formidable USA during the heat race at the 2023 Worlds before settling for the second place.

Meanwhile, India pulled out of the mixed 4x400m relay second-round heat races today as Ramesh was not available after suffering muscle cramps while running the men’s 4x400m first-round heat on Sunday.

The women’s relay team will be returning to the Olympics after missing out on the Tokyo Games. The Paris participation will be the eighth time for the Indian women’s 4x400m team, the first being in 1984 Games.

For the men’s 4x400m team, this will be the fourth time India will be taking part in the Olympics, the first being in the 2000 Sydney Games.

With this, India now have at least 19 Paris-bound track and field athletes, including Neeraj Chopra.

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