ASIAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS | Mixed relay team runs to gold with meet record

India win gold in 4x400m mixed relay, Sreeshankar, Swapna Barman, Khusare win silver, Santhosh Kumar bronze at Asian Athletics Champs.

With their sudden and stunning timings, doping issues and mysterious injuries, the quartermilers may often be under scrutiny at home. But for a few minutes on Saturday evening in Bangkok, the 4x400m mixed relay team brushed away all the worries and won the gold with a meet record at the 25th Asian Athletics Championships.

The Indian team, comprising Rajesh Ramesh, Aishwarya Mishra, Amoj Jacob and Subha Venkatesan, had to stave off a strong challenge from Japan in the last two legs before winning the gold in 3:14.70s which was also a new national record.

“Before the race, we were all hyped up, of course we were tense but we knew we could get the gold,” said Amoj.

“Now, we will be focusing on the World Championships.”

India also won three silver medals through long jumper M. Sreeshankar, high jumper Sarvesh Khusare and heptathlete Swapna Barman on the championships’ penultimate day and T. Santhosh Kumar took a bronze in the men’s 400m hurdles.

The long jump competition was very close. Sreeshankar, No. 2 in the World list this year with his 8.41m, had a wonderful series with five jumps over 8.10m and was in the lead till the halfway stage. But Taipei’s Lin Yu-Tang stunned the field and grabbed the lead and later the gold with a massive 8.40m leap in the fourth round to pip Sreeshankar who had a big 8.37m effort in the last round. That also saw the 24-year-old Indian qualify for next year’s Paris Olympics.

Swapna Barman has been battling a back injury for some time. And last year, the Asian Games champion even announced that she was quitting the sport. But instead of giving up completely, Swapna made her training load lighter and was rewarded with a silver in the heptathlon.