Paris Olympics 2024: Indian relay teams fail to progress to finals, Indian athletes challenge ends

The Indian men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams did not make the final in their respective heats to end India’s campaign at the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024.

The Indian men’s relay team comprising Muhammed Anas, Mohammed Ajmal, Amoj Jacob and Rajesh Ramesh clocked 3:00.58 to finish fifth in their heat while the Indian women’s relay team of Subha Venkatesan, Jyothika Sri Dandi, MR Poovamma and Vithya Ramraj finished eighth and last in their heats.

The Indian men’s quartet finished fourth, behind France, Belgium and Italy in Heat 2. French runners clocked 2:59.53 while the Belgium team came just behind with a time of 2:59.84. Italy clocked 3:00.26, fraction of seconds less than the Indian team.

The three teams qualified for the final.

The timing of 3:00.58 was a national record but on the world stage it wasn’t enough to send the Indian team to the final. The previous national record was set by the same quartet with a time of 3:03.23 in the World Relays in Bahamas.

India finished fifth overall but after Nigeria was disqualified for an infringement, India were ranked fourth.

Anas started the first leg and clocked 45.79s in 400m. He was the last to hand over the baton to Ajmal and the Indian had a tough time in navigating past Spain’s Oscar Husillos and South Africa’s Zakithi Nene.

He did well and India moved up four places while Amoj Jacob did well to outrun Spain and Italy. However, Rajesh and Italy’s Edoardo Scotti went neck-to-neck with the Italian finishing ahead of the Indian.

Meanwhile, the Indian women’s team clocked 3:32.51 and finished last in their heat. The Indian runners’ season best finish was 3:28.64.

The time was almost six seconds behind an Indian national record of 3:26.89, achieved at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Jyothika Sri Dandi in the second leg was the fastest Indian out of the four when she completed her 400m with a time of 51.30s.

The USA (3:21.44), Great Britain (3:24.72) and France (3:24.73) qualified from the heat.