BENGALURU: India's women's 4x400m relay team and mixed relay squads may miss the World Athletics Championships beginning in Budapest, Hungary, on August 19 but for any last-minute miracles before the World Athletics' (WA) deadline ends on Sunday.
The Indian quartet's season best time of 3 minutes, 33.73 seconds, which fetched them the bronze medal at the recent Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, has put them in the 32nd place in WA's Road To Budapest 23 list. Dominican Republic, who clocked 3:27.84s in San Salvador on July 7, occupy the 16th and last spot.
The first eight s pots went to the top eight finishers from the last edition in Oregon while the remaining eight will be filled based on the best performances in the qualifying period. The women's relay team, which is in Sri Lanka, will hope for a better show at their national meet in Diyagama near Colombo during the weekend to finish among the top 16 in the world.
The mixed relay team is now 17th with only the top 16 making the cut. After Kenya clocked 3:14.64s in June, India had their chance in the Asian meet but the quartet of Rajesh Ramesh, Aishwarya Mishra, Amoj Jacob and Suba Venkatesan missed the target as they won the gold in 3:14.70s. Meanwhile, the men's 4x400m relay team is all set to make the cut. Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal, Mijo Chacko Kurian and Ramesh are 14th after they timed 3:01.80s for a silver medal in Bangkok behind Sri Lanka.
Saroj, Annu on the edge
Inmen's 1500m, Asian champion Ajay Kumar Saroj has provisionally made the cut but will lose his berth if another Asian athlete goes ahead of him in world rankings. Saroj clocked 3:41.51s in Bangkok that put him in the 56th and last spot.
More than 50 athletes met the automatic qualification mark of 3:34.20s of which only 42 spots were filled based on the entry standard as only a maximum of three entries per country is allowed in one event, except in the case of wild cards.
