Indian 4x400m mixed relay team fails to qualify for Paris 2024 despite breaking national record at Asian Championships – Firstpost

India’s 4×400 mixed relay team rewrote the national record en route to gold at the inaugural Asian Relay Championships in Bangkok on Monday.

The team comprising Muhammed Ajmal, Jyothika Sri Dandi, Amoj Jacob and Subha Venkatesan finished on the first place of the podium with a time of 3 minutes and 14.12 seconds. They ended up beating the previous record recorded by the silver medal-winning Indian team at last year’s Asian Games by 0.22 seconds.

The timing of Bangkok, however, was not enough to put the Indian quartet in the qualifying bracket for the Paris Olympics.

India led in all four legs of the race to win gold while Sri Lanka took silver with a time of 3:17:00. Vietnam won bronze with a time of 3:18:45.

Monday’s schedule will put India in 21st place – up from the previous 23rd – in World Athletics’ Road to Paris list, compared to the target of being in 15th or 16th place.

India is therefore in a difficult position to qualify for the Olympics as only sixteen teams will participate in the 4x400m mixed relay event in Paris.

Fourteen mixed 4x400m teams have already automatically qualified for the Paris Olympics during the World Athletics Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, earlier this month, with only two spots remaining to be filled based on best timings countries until the June 30 qualification deadline.

The Czech Republic (3:11.98) and Italy (3:13.56) currently occupy 15th and 16th places on the Road to Paris list, below the top 14 teams who booked a ticket to Paris during the relays World Athletics Championships in the Bahamas, where India had failed to make the grade.

India’s goal in Bangkok on Monday was to improve at least 3:13.56 and place 16th, but the country fell short.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) may consider sending the 4x400m mixed relay team to international competitions before the June 30 deadline.

India will compete in the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay races on the second day on Tuesday.

In the Bahamas, the Indian 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Rajesh Ramesh, Rupal Chaudhary, Avinash Krishna Kumar and Jyothika Sri Dandi had a poor race and failed to qualify for Paris in the first qualifying race. qualifying round.

The Indian team withdrew from the second round qualifying race after Ramesh suffered an injury while running the men’s 4x400m relay.

Later, the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams reached the Paris cut in the second round qualifying race.

With PTI inputs