Indian men’s relay team boost Tokyo chances at Inter State Athletics meet

The Indian men’s 4x400m relay team of Muhammed Anas, Amoj Jacob, Arokia Rajiv and Noah Nirmal Tom edged closer to a Tokyo Olympics berth with a fine performance at the 60th National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships.

The Indian quartet clocked 3:01.89s to win their heats at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala.

The run is set to lift them up to the 13th spot on World Athletics’ Road to Olympic Games 2020 rankings. They were previously on 16th, courtesy a 3:02.59s run at a meet in Turkey back in 2019.

A nation can qualify for the men’s 4x400m relay race at Tokyo 2020 in two ways.

Out of the 16 slots available for the event, 12 have already been accounted for by nations winning the berths available at the two designated qualifying events -- the 2019 World Athletics Championships and the 2021 World Athletics Relays.

These 12 nations occupy rankings one to 12 in the Road to Olympic Games 2020 rankings and have already qualified for Tokyo.

The remaining four slots will go to the teams occupying slot No. 13 to 16 in the Race to Tokyo list by the end of the qualification window - June 29. The rankings are decided based on best timings achieved within the qualifying window.

Before today’s race at Patiala, India was placed 16th on the rankings and was the last team poised to make the cut for Tokyo.

Friday’s performance should see them climb to the 13th spot, thereby increasing their chances of staying within the cut off zone with the end of the window approaching.

The Indian quartet will have another chance to improve on their performance when they race in the 4x400m relay final at the Inter State meet on June 29.

Women’s 4x100m relay team falls short

In women’s 4x100m heats, the team of Hima Das, Dutee Chand, S Dhanalakshmi and Archana Suseendran clocked 43.50s to set a new meet record.

The timing, however, fell short of the quartet’s national record-setting performance of 43.37s from the Indian Grand Prix 4. It was also a good 0.45 seconds off the 43.05s mark they needed to breach to get themselves in contention for a Tokyo berth.

The four, however, will get another shot in the finals.

The Indian women’s 4x100m team is currently placed 20th in the Road to Olympic Games 2020 rankings in their category and need to break into the top 16.

Inter State Athletics Championships 2021 - Day 1 medals

Men

1000m: Vikram Bangriya (MP) 30:16.44, 1st; Kartik Kumar (UP) 30:25.79; 2nd; Dinesh (MAH) 30:50.74, 3rd.

Pole vault: Shekhar Pandey (UP) 4.80, 1st; Dhirendra Kumar (UP) 4.50, 2nd; Parveen Kumar (HAR) 4.50, 3rd.

Women

5000m: Parul Chaudhary (UP) 16:04.07, 1st; Komal Jagadale (MAH) 16:26.89, 2nd; Ankita (UTK) 16:58.07, 3rd.

110m Hurdles: Kanimozhi C (TN) 13.66, 1st; Agasara Nandini (TEL) 13.70, 2nd; WVL Sugandi (SL) 13.90, 3rd.

Hammer throw: Manju Bala (RAJ) 61.08, 1st; Sarita Singh (UP) 56.13, 2nd; Surabhi Vedpathak (MAH) 54.77, 3rd.

Triple jump: Renu (HAR) 13.23, 1st; Sonam Km (UP) 12.96, 2nd; Athira Surendran (KER) 12.55, 3rd.