We are still there, don’t count us out, says Srabani Nanda Premium

Srabani Nanda is the country’s fastest woman this year after winning the 100m gold, with a season-best 11.57s, at the Federation Cup in Ranchi

Two years ago, the Indian women’s 4x100m relay team was very confident of making it to the Tokyo Olympics. That did not happen and the last year has seen one setback after another, especially on the doping front.

Olympian S. Dhanalakshmi, and later M.V. Jilna, who were set to go to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year as part of the sprint relay team, failed dope tests and in December, National 100m record-holder Dutee Chand — a former World University Games champion and Asian Games silver medallist — also fell into the doping net.

And, according to National coach Radhakrishnan Nair, top sprinter Hima Das suffered an injury just before the April 15 Indian Grand Prix in Bengaluru forcing her to miss the Federation Cup.

The Asian Championships (Thailand, July), World Championships (Hungary, August) and the Asian Games (China, September) are lined up this year but now it looks like the sprint relay team has virtually collapsed.

“I can’t say it’s no longer there. You still have Jyothi Yarraji, Archana (Suseendran) and myself. We need just need one more, one more girl from here. So, for the Asians, we are still there,” said Srabani Nanda, the country’s fastest woman this year after winning the 100m gold at the Federation Cup in a season-best 11.57s on Tuesday, in a chat with The Hindu here.

Srabani, fifth in India’s all-time 100m list with her 11.36s which came in Florida in June 2021, has been training in Jamaica under Stephen Francis who had coached Olympic and World champions Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce earlier.

So, she is not a National camper and the Athletics Federation of India has a policy that it will not include non-campers in its relay teams for major championships.