New Delhi: Relief and joy lit up the faces of India’s women quarter-milers as the relay team ended the country’s gold medal drought on the final day of athletics competition at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium on Tuesday.
In mixed relay, Gurindervir Singh, SS Sneha, Animesh Kujur and Harita Bhadra finished third in 41.06secs, behind China (40.78secs) and Thailand (40.87secs). In the last race of the day, India’s men’s relay quarter-milers — defending champions– clocked 3:01.61, behind gold medallists Japan (3:00.75) and Qatar (3:00.93). The men’s 4x400m and mixed 4x100m relay teams finished with bronze medals. The Indian team comprised Dharamveer Choudhary, T Manu, Jay Kumar and Vishal TK.
Vithya Ramraj’s blistering anchor leg saw the Indian 4x400m relay team finish well ahead of Bahrain to win gold, clocking 3:29.69. Bahrain came in at 3:30.21s and China were third in 3:31.02. India have dominated this event, winning five successive gold medals from 2002 to 2018 Games. Salwa is a 48-second runner. Poovamma, who was part of the gold medal winning Indian relay teams in 2014 and 2018, said she had a point to prove.
Because of that I was able to maintain the gap,” Vithya said, but my teammates gave me the distance and. She missed Hangzhou due to a doping suspension.
We are proud of the achievement,” Prachi told PTI in Nagoya. So, we badly wanted to win here,” she said. There were a lot of people who said whether Poovamma will be able to win a medal again,” she was quoted as saying by PTI.
Bahrain’s Paris Olympics silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser chased down Zuo, but was unable to catch Vithya. On the last day of the athletics campaign, the onus was on the women’s 4x400m relay team to provide the missing golden touch. They slipped to second in Hangzhou, beaten by Bahrain. Prachi and Vithya were part of that team. “Everybody has been saying that there was no gold medal in athletics, so we were motivated to win the gold for the country. “I was part of the relay team when we got silver the last time. When Vithya took charge, India were not in the lead. “I had to push more. I overtook one, and then two. Then came the finish line. She has the capacity to do that. It was her sixth medal at the Asian Games. “I wanted to come back very badly.
Vithya, who has had an outstanding Games and broke PT Usha’s 400m hurdles national record on Monday, powered through the bend after overtaking China’s anchor runner Siyu Zuo and was unstoppable on the home stretch. That loss was avenged on Tuesday.
