Indian mixed 4x400m relay team wins silver with Asian junior record in World U20 Athletics
The Hindu
The Indian quartet of Barath Sridhar, Priya Mohan, Kapil and Rupal Chaudhary clocked 3 minutes and 17.67 seconds to finish behind USA (3:17.69).
The Indian mixed 4×400 relay team clinched a silver medal by bettering its own Asian record time in the final of the World U-20 Athletics Championships here.
The Indian quartet of Barath Sridhar, Priya Mohan, Kapil and Rupal Chaudhary clocked 3 minutes and 17.67 seconds to finish behind USA (3:17.69) on Tuesday night.
The Indian team bettered its own earlier Asian record of 3:19.62 set here a day earlier during the heats. The new timing of 3:17.67 is the second best (in juniors) in the all time list in the event, behind USA's.
The Indian team had also qualified for the final as second overall across the three heat races behind USA.
This was India's second consecutive medal in the mixed 4x400m relay at the World U-20 Athletics Championships after the bronze at the last edition in Nairobi in 2021, where the event was introduced for the first time.
Rupal is the only new member of the quartet that had won bronze last year while Sridhar, Priya, and Kapil were there in that team.
The silver medal-winning performance was all the more impressive as most of the Indians reached here just a day before the start of the event after an onerous journey due to visa issues.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.