Tokyo: The Indian men’s 4x400m relay quartet shattered the Asian record during the Olympics heats here Friday. However, in spite of that the Indian men missed qualifying for the final round by a whisker. The Indian quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Tom Noah Nirmal, Rajiv Arokia and Amoj Jacob completed the race in 3:00.25 seconds to finish fourth in the second heat. The Indian men missed out the eight-team final as they ended at ninth spot overall. The first three in each of the two heats and the next two fastest qualify for the final.
The earlier Asian record was in the name of Qatar who had clocked 3:00.56s while winning the gold in the 2018 Asian Games.
Jacob, who ran the last leg, was the best among the four Indian runners with 44.68 seconds as he overtook two rivals after the team were placed at sixth when he took the baton from Rajiv Arokia (44.84). National record holder Yahiya understandably clocked the slowest (45.60) time as he had to run the longest distance after starting the race in lane number 2.
Yahiya said he’s happy that the team broke the Asian record but gutted to miss the final. “Really happy with the team’s performance and the new records but gutted to have not made the finals. Thank you everyone for your wishes and messages,” Yahiya tweeted.
The Indian team had qualified for the Olympics on the basis of the 3:01.89s timing clocked during the National Inter-State Championships in June which had put it in the 13th spot in World Athletics’ top list.