Indian women's and men's 4x400m relay teams qualify for Paris Olympics

Indian Women's And Men's 4x400m Relay Teams: Indian women's and men's 4x400m relay teams qualified for the Paris Olympics by finishing second in the second round heat at the World Athletics Relays here on Monday. The quartet of Rupal Chowdhary, M R Poovamma, Jyothika Sri Dandi and Shubha Venkatesan took three minutes 29. By taking a time of 35 seconds, he got the ticket to Paris by finishing second after Jamaica (3:28.54) in the first heat.

The Indian team finished 3 minutes 29 in the first round qualifying heat on Sunday. She stood fifth with a time of 74 seconds. Later, the men's team (Mohammad Anas Yahya, Mohammad Ajmal, Arokia Rajeev and Amol Jacob) finished second after America (2:59.95) with a timing of 3 minutes 3.23 seconds. In the second round, the top two teams from the three heats qualified for the Olympic Games to be held from July 26 to August 11.

In the first round, the men's team could not complete the race because second round runner Rajeev Ramesh had to drop out midway due to a muscle strain. Now 19 Indian track and field players have qualified for the Paris Olympics, including javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra. Athletics competitions will start from August 1.