Indian teams will compete in five of the six relay events at next month’s World Athletics in Botswana
Five male Indian quarter milers have clocked an impressive time of below 46 seconds this year. All of them are ready to battle it out at the next month’s World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, Botswana, says Adille Sumariwalla.
“Going by the current performance of the male quarter milers we can expect a better time than the national record of 2:59:05 seconds,” Sumariwalla said during media interaction on Saturday.
According to Sumariwalla, spokesperson of AFI (Athletics Federation of India) and vice-president of World Athletics, the Indian men’s 4x400m relay team set an Asian and national record of 2:59:05 seconds at the 2023 Budapest World Athletics Championships in Hungary. The national team also advanced to the medal round.
Since 2023 the 4x400m relay team members have had mixed luck in the World Relays, but are ready to showcase their potential at the global relay carnival on May 2 and 3 in Gaborone.
During the one-day first International Invitational Relay Competition and third National Open Relay Competition held earlier in March in Chandigarh, the quartet of Manu TS, Amoj Jacob, Dharmveer Choudhary and Rajesh Ramesh combined well to post a time of 3:01.43 seconds. The performance improved Indian team global ranking to 16 in the men’s 4x400m relay on Road to Gaborone.
“The Indian athletes will compete in five relay events out of six,” Sumariwalla added. “A 21-member Indian relay contingent will compete on the South African soil.”
In the two-day global relay carnival in Botswana top 24 teams will compete in each of the six events. The competition will be held in women’s 4x100m relay; women’s 4x400m relay; men’s 4x100m relay; 4x400m relay; 4x100m mixed relay and 4x400m mixed relay.
The qualification period for 2026 World Athletics Relays started January 1, 2025 and April 5, 2026 was the deadline to qualify for the global relay festival.
Indian Team: Men: Rajesh Ramesh, Manu TS, Amoj Jacob, Dharamveer Choudhary, Theerthesh Shetty, Nihal Joel William, Vishal TK (4x400m men’s relay and 4x400m mixed relay).
Pranav Gaurav, Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Ragul Kumar Ganesh Kumar, Harsh Satosh Raut, Tamilarasu S (4x100m men’s relay and 4x100m mixed relay).
Women: Rashdeep Kaur, Kumari Saloni Nagar, Ansa Babu (all 4x400m mixed relay).
Tamanna, Sudeshna Hanmant Shivankar, Nithya Gandhe, Sneha SS, Srabani Nanda (4x100m women’s relay and 4x100m mixed relay).
EOM
