Bangkok. India’s mixed 4×400 meter relay team created a national record and won the gold medal in the first Asian Relay Championship here on Monday. The Indian team, however, failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics. The quartet of Muhammad Ajmal, Jyotika Sri Dandi, Amoj Jacob and Shubha Venkatesan won the gold medal with a timing of three minutes 14.12 seconds. The previous national record was 3 minutes 14.34 seconds which was set by the Indian team while winning the silver medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. The Indian team was leading during all four stages of the race.
The Sri Lankan team stood second with a timing of 3 minutes 17.00 seconds while the Vietnamese team stood third with a timing of 3 minutes 18.45 seconds. This time on Monday places the Indian team at 21st place in the World Athletics Road to Paris list. The team’s target was to finish 15th or 16th. In this way, the path of the Indian team to qualify for the Paris Olympics has become difficult because only 16 teams will participate in the mixed 4×400 meter relay team in Paris.
Even before the World Athletics Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, 14 4×400 meter relay teams have automatically qualified for the Paris Olympics. Now only two places have to be filled on the basis of best times of the countries till the deadline of 30th June. Czech Republic (3 minutes 11.98 seconds) and Italy (3 minutes 13.56 seconds) are currently ranked 15th and 16th respectively in the Road du Paris list. Earlier, the top 14 teams had already booked tickets for the Paris Olympics during the World Athletics Relay, where the Indian team failed to qualify.
On Monday, India’s target was to improve the timing by at least three minutes 13.56 seconds to reach 16th position but the team failed to do so. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) may consider sending the mixed 4x400m relay team to international competitions before the June 30 deadline.
India will compete in the men’s and women’s 4×400 meter relay race on the second day of the Asian Relays on Tuesday.
In the Bahamas, the Indian mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Rajesh Ramesh, Rupal Chaudhary, Avinash Krishna Kumar and Jyotika Sri Dandi performed poorly and failed to book a ticket to Paris in the heat of the first round of qualifiers.
The Indian team withdrew from the heats of the second round qualifiers after Ramesh got injured while participating in the men’s four 400 meters relay race.
Later, both the men’s and women’s 4×400 meters relay teams qualified for the Paris Games during the second round of qualification heats.