On August 26, four Indian men, running the 4X400 metres relay in the World Championships in Budapest, finished second in heat one (qualifying rounds) and got into the final round, turning the nation’s attention towards them. In an event usually dominated by the U.S., Jamaica, and the U.K., and where Indians or even Asians have rarely made a mark, the relay deservedly became the talk of the town.
Though the four athletes did not go on to win medals in the final round, their run shattered many records. Data also shows that this was not an ‘out of the blue’ run, but a culmination of years of consistent work with members of this quartet setting and breaking multiple domestic records.
During heat one in Budapest, the team comprising Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, and Rajesh Ramesh broke the Indian national record by completing the race in 2 minutes 59.05 seconds (179.05 seconds) and finishing second behind the U.S.
Chart 1 | The chart shows all the 4X400 metres relay runs by Indians completed below 3 minutes and 15 seconds, in recognised international and domestic competitions.
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The 179.05 seconds run in heat one broke the previously held Indian national record of 180.25 seconds set by Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob (part of the Budapest team), Noah Nirmal Tom, and Arokia Rajiv in Tokyo on August 6, 2021.
In the Budapest final, the runners completed the race in 179.92 seconds, the second fastest for India now. Also, notably, the heat one race was the first time that Indians managed to finish the relay run in under three minutes.
Chart 2 | The chart shows all the 4x400 metres relay runs by Asians completed below the 3 minutes 2 seconds mark, in recognised competitions.
Not only was the Budapest heat one run a national record, but it also broke the Asian record of 2 minutes 59.51 seconds (179.51 seconds) previously set by Japan on July 24, 2022.
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In Asia, apart from Indians, the Japanese have always dominated relay runs. Before Budapest, Japan was the only Asian country to have completed the race in under three minutes. In the past, of the 25 instances in which Asian teams ran the 4X400 metres relay below the 3 minutes 2 second mark, 15 were by Japanese runners, while Indians managed it seven times. Runners from Sri Lanka and Qatar managed it just once each.
Chart 3 | The chart shows all the 4X400 metres relay runs by athletes from all countries completed below the 3 minutes 2 second mark.
There have been 245 instances of teams managing to complete the race in under three minutes. The U.S. has done it 82 times (33%) followed by Jamaica (12%), and the U.K. (10.2%). After Budapest, India’s share stands at 0.82%. Of the 245 instances, 55 (22%) were from the 2020s and 79 (32%) were from the 2010s, pointing to an increasing number of times that teams are completing the race below three minutes in recent years. However, the world record of 174.29 seconds was set back in 1993 by the U.S. In fact, of the top 10 global runs, five were set before the 2000s.
Table 4 | The table lists the 10 fastest 4x400 relay runs by Indian teams, excluding the two record-breaking races in Budapest.
Muhammed Anas Yahiya was part of nine of those races and Amoj Jacob was part of seven. Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh were part of two races.
As previously mentioned, the achievements in Budapest were not an isolated success but rather a continuation of previous accomplishments.
rebecca.varghese@thehindu.co.in and vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in
Source: World Athletics
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