Lalita Babar’s 10th place finish in the Women’s 3000m steeplecchase, and Manish Rawat 13th in the 20 km walk are the highlights of India’s Rio Olympic Athletics contingent so far. However, with three more days of competition left, the country’s relay teams are yet to compete at the grandest stage of them all. During qualifying, the Men’s 4x400m team surprised the fraternity by registering the third fastest time (3:00.91) of 2016, ahead of stalwarts such as Great Britain and Jamaica. However, according to coach MOhammad Kunhi, they have significantly improved their timing here in Rio.
Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, he said, “The boys ran 2:56.7 the other day, which is a good timing. If we want to be in the top 5, this is the kind of timing we need to register. It might be the fasest timing, but it will be a bit misleading because the best teams who clock 2:54 have not been running. That being said all the boys are running under 45.3 second splits, which is definitely top 5 worthy. Now they need to translate their training succes in the main event.”
The team – Muhammad Anas, Muhammad Kunhu, Rajiv Arokia and Ayyasamy Dharun have been in Rio since July 26, training for the event. He added, “Rajiv has even clocked under 45 seconds on a couple of occassions, so everything is looking positive. We have been consistently shaving off 4 seconds of our timing from Bengaluru and if everything goes well, the final should be an easy prospect.”
Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Secretary C K Valson said, “Yes, we are aware of their timings and we are very confident that we will make the finals this time. If they can match the 2:56.7, a top five is also a possibility. But we must keep in mind that training is a different thing and match day is different. We wanted them to get as much mental coaching before their event. They have been here the longest among any of the members of the Indian contingent as we wanted them to get acclimatised to conditions here. We are hoping for the best.”
The current best timing of 2016 has been set by the Louisiana State University, who clocked 3:00.38 in April. The Indian Men’s relay team’s first heat will take place on August 20 at 5:50 am IST.
