The Indian men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams secured their Paris Olympics berths as they finished second in their respective second-round heats at the World Relay Championships in Nassau, Bahamas, on Monday.
The Indian women’s team of Rupal Chaudhary, M R Poovamma, Jyothika Sri Dandi and Subha Venkatesan clocked 3:29.35 seconds to finish second behind Jamaica (3:28.54) in heat number one to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
In the men’s race, Arokia Rajiv replaced injured Rajesh Ramesh as he combined with Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal and Amoj Jacob to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
The Indian men’s team clocked 3:03.23s to finish second in their heats behind USA (2:59.95).
On the second day of the World Relays, only the teams that could not make it to the Olympics on the opening day were in the fray for the Paris quota places.
The top two teams in each of the three heats in the second round secured their berths for the July-26-August 11 Olympics.
On Sunday morning, the Indian women’s finished fifth in their first-round heat and 14th overall as they clocked 3:29.74s.
However, the Indian men’s team had even failed to finish the race after second-leg runner Ramesh withdrew due to muscle cramps.
After the qualification of Indian men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams, India’s athletics contingent for the Paris Olympics went up to 19.