Relay hopes dashed

India’s Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi (centre) and Muhammed Anas Yahiya during the the men’s 4x400m relay yesterday; (right) India’s Jyothika Dandi (right) takes off after receiving the baton from Vithya Ramraj during the women’s 4x400m relay in Paris yesterday. Pics/PTI

The Indian men's 4x400m relay team failed to live up to expectations as it finished 10th overall in the heat race to miss a final round spot in the Paris Olympics here on Friday.

The Indian quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal, Amoj Jacob and Rajesh Ramesh clocked a season's best of 3 minutes and 0.58 seconds but that was enough only for a fourth-place finish in heat number 2 and 10th overall out of 16 teams.

The top three teams in each of the two heats and the next two fastest across the two heats advance to the final. Botswana (2:57.76), Great Britain (2:58.88) and USA (2:59.15) were the top three while Japan was fourth with a time of 2:59.48.

India holds the Asian record of 2:59.05 which it had clocked during the 2023 Budapest World Championships where the team was briefly running along side the formidable USA.

The Athletics Federation of India had pinned a lot of hope on the men's 4x400m relay team to make it to the final round, but it failed to do so ultimately. The women's 4x400m relay team also failed to qualify for the final round after finishing 15th overall out of 16 countries competed in the round one heats.

The quartet of Vithya Ramraj, Jyothika Sri Dandi, MR Poovamma and Subha Venkatesan clocked 3:32.51 to finish eighth and last in heat number two and 15th overall.

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