India’s 4x400m team smash Asian record
NEW DELHI: A couple of seconds after Amoj Jacob – the youngest of India’s 4x400m men’s relay team at 23 – took the baton from Rajiv Arokia – the eldest of the quartet at 30 – for the anchor leg of their heat, he had five sprinters ahead of him. The Polish, Jamaican and Belgian runners were in front, but the Japanese and Frenchman were within striking distance. Thus began the chase.
At the start of the bend, Jacob went past Japan’s Aoto Suzuki, and towards the end of the curve went toe-to-toe with Gilles Biron of France. Then he took off. With the baton in his furiously pumping right hand, he pulled away in the final stretch, extending a yawning gap with the two he had just beaten with pace. Even then, he dipped his head slightly to cross the finish line, ensuring the Indian team finished with a time of 3:00.25s. That time is the new Asian record in the event.
The Indians ended fourth in Heat 2, a good 0.51s ahead of the fifthplaced Japan. Still, it was not enough to merit a place in the eight-team final for which the top three teams from each heat and the next two fastest teams qualified.
Heat 1, a much quicker race which also saw the African record, had Italy (fourth) and Netherlands (fifth) clock 2:58.91 and 2:59.06, respectively. Both those times are national records.
India was ninth overall among the 16 teams, the fastest team on Friday to not qualify. However, it was a creditable performance to round off India’s track challenge at the Tokyo Olympics, which had otherwise little to cheer about barring the 3,000m steeplechase national record by Avinash Sable, who also missed out on final qualification by one spot.
Qatar had previously rewritten the Asian record for the longer relay at the 2018 Asian Games with a gold medal-winning run of 3:00.56. In that race, India featuring Kunhu Muhammed, Dharun Ayyasamy, Muhammed Anas and Arokia took silver, clocking 3:01.85s.
Anas, 26, and Arokia were in Tokyo too, with the former starting in Lane 2. Anas, the national record holder in 400m, delivered the baton in 45.67s, the slowest among the four. The 26-year-old Tom Noah Nirmal ran 45.06s and at the halfway point in the race, the Indians were placed sixth.
Arokia cranked it up a notch, injecting some more speed, to finish his part of the job in 44.84s. Then Jacob – the runner from Delhi who was part of the 2017 Asian Championships-winning 4x400m team – took over, clocking the fastest Indian time to finish the final leg in 44.68s.
The relay team qualified for the Tokyo Olympics on the back of a season best showing at the national interstate championships in Patiala in the last week of June, clocking 3:01.89.