New Delhi: India’s 4x400m mixed relay team can reach the final of the Doha World Championships despite the absence of top quarter-miler Hima Das, deputy chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair said Thursday.
World junior champion Hima was Wednesday ruled out of the showpiece event beginning September 27 due to her persistent back injury. It was a huge setback to the Indian team which was putting a lot of hope in the newly introduced mixed 4x400m relay event.
“Not much difference (with the ruling out of Hima Das). We have to stay positive and still believe that we can reach the finals in mixed 4x400m relay,” Nair told this agency.
The top eight finishers in the relay events of the World Championships will automatically qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
India qualified in the World Championships as the 14th ranked team in the mixed 4x400m relay based on their Asian Games gold winning time of 3:15.71 seconds.
The team from Bahrain was the original winner but it was stripped of the top spot as one its runners was caught for doping. Muhammed Anas, Arokia Rajiv, MR Poovamma and Hima Das ran that race in Jakarta.
In Doha, however, neither Hima Das will be there nor Arokia Rajiv, who is also laid low with an injury. Jisna Mathew, Poovamma and VK Vismaya were named along with Jacob Amoj, Anas and Noah Tom Nirmal for the 4x400m mixed relay.
Meanwhile, the world athletics governing body IAAF released Thursday the provisional entry list of the showpiece event. Twenty-six Indians featured in the list with Hima expectedly missing out. Dutee Chand (women’s 100m) was also not named in that squad but later got the invite from the IAAF which the AFI confirmed.