After robust 2023, Indian athletes hope to make affect in World Relays

Indian men’s 4x400m relay team, consisting of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammad Ajmal Variyathodi, and Rajesh Ramesh. File

Indian males’s 4x400m relay group, consisting of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammad Ajmal Variyathodi, and Rajesh Ramesh. File
| Picture Credit score: ANI

A 15-member robust Indian athletics contingent will look to make an affect in scenic Nassau and hope to qualify for the Paris Olympics in three occasions when the two-day World Athletics Relays Bahamas 24 commences in Nassau on Could 4.

The Indian males’s 4×400 relay group has been making waves of late, developing with spectacular performances on the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo and following it up by difficult the USA’s aura of invincibility on the World Championships in Budapest final August.

The group then lived as much as the billing by clinching gold on the Hangzhou Asian Video games with an amazing run of three:01.58.

On a excessive following these very good performances final yr, India could be hoping to reset the nationwide and Asian file of two:59.05 seconds set by the quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal and Rajesh Ramesh in Budapest.

The quartet will, nevertheless, should work actually onerous to attain that feat, on condition that its finest this season is just 3:05.71 seconds, which is sort of 4 seconds adrift of the their gold medal-winning efficiency in Hangzhou.

As per the World Relay format for Paris, the 2 prime groups in every warmth on Could 4 will advance to the ultimate a day later. They can even safe Paris 2024 Olympic quotas within the course of.

The Olympic lane seeding positions will probably be determined within the finals on Could 5 and people can even be competing for medals.

All the opposite groups will compete in a further spherical on Could 5 the place the top-two groups in every warmth can even qualify for Paris.

India will probably be fielding groups in males’s, ladies’s and blended 4x400m, with the boys’s quartet the very best positioned to qualify for Paris primarily based on their performances final yr.

India has despatched an eight-member males’s 4x400m relay group right here, together with the Asian Video games gold-medallist quartet of Amoj Jacob, Muhammad Anas Yahiya, Muhammad Ajmal and Rajesh Ramesh.

The squad additionally consists of 2018 Jakarta Asian Video games blended relay gold medallist Rajiv Arokia, Noah Nirmal Tom, Yashas Palaksha and Avinash Krishna Kumar.

Amoj, Arokia Rajiv, Nirmal and Anas had additionally competed on the Tokyo Olympics, the place they put up a commendable efficiency however missed out on a spot within the ultimate by a whisker on strategy to setting an Asian file of three:00.25.

India has additionally entered a seasoned seven-member squad for the ladies’s 4x400m relay occasion, led by a number of Asian Video games gold-medal winner MR Poovamma. The squad additionally has the Hangzhou Asian Video games silver medal-winning group of Vithya Ramraj, Aishwarya Mishra, Prachi and Subha Venkatesan.

Rupal and Jyothika Sri Dandi are the opposite Indian members.

India can even have excessive hopes within the blended 4x400m relay occasion following their silver medal-winning efficiency on the Hangzhou Asian Video games.

A complete of 32 groups will probably be within the fray in males’s 4x400m, whereas 27 groups are in rivalry in ladies’s 4x400m. In blended 4×400, 30 groups are within the fray.

Crew:

Males’s 4x400m: Amoj Jacob, Avinash Krishna Kumar, Rajiv Arokia, Rajesh Ramesh, Noah Nirmal Tom, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Yashas B.

Ladies’s 4x400m: Jyothika Sri Dandi, MR Poovamma, Aishwarya Kailash Mishra, Prachi, Vithya Ramraj, Rupal, Subha Venkatesan.

4×400 Blended: Amoj Jacob (M), Rajesh Ramesh (M), Yashas (M), Jyothika Sri Dandi (W), Vithya Ramraj (W), Rupal (W).