World Athletics U20 Championships: Bronze at last after years of expectations from 4x400m relay teams at marquee events

After years of pinning its hopes on the 4x400m relay teams to bring home a medal from world-class events, the Athletics Federation of India had a reason to rejoice on Wednesday, courtesy the performance of the mixed 4x400 relay team at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi. The quartet of Barath Sridhar, Priya Mohan, Summy and Kapil won bronze at the U20 Worlds, only India’s fifth medal at the event after Seema Antil’s bronze in discus throw at 2002, Navjeet Kaur Dhillon’s bronze in discus throw in 2014, Neeraj Chopra’s gold in javelin throw in 2016 and Hima Das’ gold in the 400m race in 2018. While India’s relay teams have had success at the Asian Games level, there has been talk for many years now that the nation can win 4x400m relay medals at the World Championships and at the Olympics - where the mixed 4x400 relay made its Games debut at Tokyo. On Wednesday, in Nairobi, Barath gave the team a flying start, with his split time of 47.12 seconds second only to South Africa’s Antonie Nortje. Priya Mohan’s timing of 52.77s (the third fastest in her lap) saw India slip to third spot. In the penultimate leg, Summy put Poland’s Alicja Kaczmarek under pressure for most of the lap for second spot, but eventually her timing of 54.29s saw the Indian team maintain third spot, before a blistering anchor leg from Kapil saw India finish in 3:20.60s to seize bronze. “Pressure toh bilkul bhi nahi tha. Yakeen tha medal zaroor aayega (There was no pressure on us going into the final. We were certain that we will return with a medal,” Summy, who was running in her first international competition, told journalists in a virtual press conference on Wednesday. Kapil, who ran the anchor leg, added: “Mere dimaag main gold medal hi chal raha tha. Gold leke aana tha. Agli baar leke aayenge gold. Pakka! (I was thinking about winning gold. Next time, we’ll definitely get it.)” Three races in a day Remarkably, the race was Priya and Summy’s third race of the day since they competed in the heats for the mixed 4x400m relay and the women’s 400m events before the final. The pile-up had happened because the six-day World Athletics U20 Championships has been compressed into five days now by the organisers. On being asked how they had managed to run in three 400m races in the course of a few hours, Priya, who also qualified for the women’s 400m final on Wednesday, said: “Since in the morning session we just had heats, I prepared my mind to compete with just 80 percent energy. There was a little stiffness initially, but then my body opened up for the finals.” Priya also pointed out that the AFI had organised a national camp for athletes, who had qualified for the U20 Worlds, from 23 July. But some athletes were unable to join because there were Nationals in the middle. The quartet worked on the finer minutiae of their sport like baton exchange once in two days when the whole squad was finally present at the camp. Barath’s injury Barath came into the race nursing an injury. He was, in fact, rested for the heats, where Abdul Razak Rasheed took his place. “We hadn’t gotten any training for nearly three months. Then when I started working out, I got an injury in my left ankle recently. It was a sprain in the spring ligament of my left ankle (the connective tissue which supports the arch of the foot). The doctor I consulted with warned me and said I cannot run races. So he asked me to withdraw from this competition,” he said. In touching distance of seniors The performance of the quartet was even more impressive considering how close it was to what India’s Tokyo Olympics 4x400m mixed relay team clocked less than a month ago. Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Revathi Veeramani, Subha Venkatesan and Rajiv Arokia ran the mixed 4x400m relay in 3:19.93s in their heat at the Tokyo Olympics. The medal was particularly sweet for Priya, who beat India’s national campers like MR Poovamma, VK Vismaya and Jisna Mathew to win the women’s 400m sprint at the recent inter-State Nationals in Patiala in July this year, but was not picked for the Tokyo Olympics squad. “I didn’t get affected by the decision to not go to Tokyo. I am not a national camper. But it’s good that I got time to prepare for the U20 World Championships,” she said nonchalantly. “This shows the depth of our junior program,” said Adille Sumariwalla , the president of the Athletics Federation of India. “Our juniors today are capable of competing with our seniors.” The performance of the juniors though also raises the question of who will be in India’s main mixed relay team. “As far as I am concerned the best will run. Whether they are juniors or seniors makes no difference. But bench strength is important. The federation is there to create enough bench strength, where we can change runners, substitute runners at any point if there’s an injury. We don’t look at juniors or seniors, the best will run," added Sumariwalla.