Nassau (Bahamas): The Indian men's and women's 4x400m relay teams qualified for the Paris Olympics after finishing second in their respective second-round heats at the World Athletics Relays here on Sunday.
In the women's competition, the quartet of Rupal Chaudhary, M R Poovamma, Jyothika Sri Dandi and Subha Venkatesan clocked 3 minutes and 29.35 seconds to finish second behind Jamaica (3:28.54) in heat number one to book a Paris Games ticket.
Later, the men's squad of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal, Arokia Rajiv and Amoj Jacob finished with a collective timing of 3 minutes and 3.23 seconds to also finish second in their heat, behind USA (2:59.95). Anas, Ajmal and Amoj are Keralites, while Rajiv is from Tamil Nadu.
The top two teams in each of the three heats in the second round were to qualify for the Olympics to be held from July 26 to August 11.
It was a sort of a surprise that the women's 4x400m team qualified for the Olympics as the focus was more on the men's 4x400m team which has broken Asian record in back-to-back global events -- Tokyo Olympics and 2023 World Championships -- as well as winning Asian Games gold last year.
The Indian women had finished fifth in the first-round qualifying heat on Sunday with a time of 3 minutes and 29.74 seconds.
The men's team had failed to finish in the first-round qualifying heat after second leg runner Rajesh Ramesh pulled out midway due to cramps. Rajiv took the place of Ramesh in the team and he ran the third leg after Anas and Ajmal.
The Indian men's 4x400m team was on third position when anchor-leg runner Amoj took the baton from Rajiv but the Delhi boy ran a fantastic race to overtake his Mexican opponent and finish second.
It was not about the timing but more about Olympics qualification for the Indian men's team which ran 3:00.25 at the Tokyo Olympics for the then Asian record before bettering it during the 2023 World Championships with yet another Asian record of 2:59.05. Monday's timing was well below the team's best.
India had even given a mighty scare to formidable USA during the heat race at the 2023 Budapest World Championships before settling for the second place.
Meanwhile, India pulled out of the mixed 4x400m relay second round heat races as Ramesh was not available after suffering muscle cramps while running the men's 4x400m first round heat.
Ramesh had run both the mixed 4x400m and men's 4x400m races on Sunday. India had featured in mixed 4x400m relay in the Tokyo Olympics where the event made its debut.
The Indian women's 4x400m relay team will be returning to Olympics after missing the Tokyo Games. The Paris Games will be the eighth Olympics for the Indian women's 4x400m team, the first being in 1984.
The Indian men's 4x400m quartet will be taking part in the Olympics for the fourth time, the first being the 2000 Sydney Games.
With this, India now have at least 19 Paris-bound track and field athletes and the list includes defending javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra among others.
The athletics events at the Games will begin on August 1.
