India's 4x100m women's relay team sets national record at the Kazakhstan Athletics Championships

New Delhi: The Indian 4x100m women’s relay team created a new national record at the Kazakhstan National Athletics Championships, clocking 43.42sec in Almaty on Monday. The 4x100m relay quartet, comprising of Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, HM Jyothi and Merlin Joseph bettered their earlier national record of 44.03sec, which was created in the IAAF World Challenge in Beijing in May. [caption id=“attachment_2873598” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Dutee Chand. AP[/caption] The Indian women’s relay team won the silver medal at the Almaty meet after starting off the blocks through Joseph, who was followed by Jyothi and Nanda respectively with Dutee anchoring the finale leg. Hosts Kazakhstan bagged the top honours with a timing of 42.92sec. Meanwhile, the Indian 4x100m men’s relay team clinched the gold medal with a timing of 39.90s. The Indian quartet was led by Jyothi Sankar, followed by Krishna Kumar Rane and Vidya Sagar with Amiya Kumar Mallick running the last stretch. The relay teams will now be competing at the 3rd and 4th Indian Grand Prix on 10 July and 11 July, respectively.