‘Women’s relay slowly coming back’: Athletics Federation of India President Adille Sumariwalla

The quartet of Vithya, Prachi, Subha and Aishwarya won the silver at the Asian Games.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Indian women’s 4x400m relay team’s five-gold winning streak at the Asian Games may have ended in Hangzhou but the way the girls won the silver promises much, feels Adille Sumariwalla.

“We have very simple, ordinary sprinters but they ran 3:27s and broke our own previous Asian Games record. We had some of the best all-time teams earlier and they have run only 3:28,” said the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president in a chat with The Hindu here.

“Women’s relay is slowly coming back, they are already back, we’ve not heard those names before…simple-looking girls. If you start looking around, you’ll get more and more athletes. The word is patience.”

Despite winning fewer golds at the recent Asiad, six compared to eight at Jakarta 2018, Indian athletics finished with its best-ever medal total (29 medals) in Hangzhou.

And with the Paris Olympics coming up next year, the AFI’s moves will be watched very closely especially since javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra brought the country its first-ever athletics gold in the Olympics in Tokyo.

While Neeraj has continued his stunning run, winning the Worlds and Asiad golds, the long jumpers, triple jumpers, and the men’s 4x400m relay team have all been raising the bar, breaking records and raising hope.

“The 4×400 relay men are now slowly getting set, they are running below 3 minutes. You look at the under-23 400m, there are eight athletes running 47 secs. So, we’ll have to see who do we can induct (into the national camp), how to bring them in, who do we weed out and all that,” said Sumariwalla.

“How long is Muhammed Anas going to keep running, who do we replace him with? He is very experienced which is very valuable, how do we use that?”

The federation will also be looking at ways to ensure that athletes produce their world-class performances at the majors and not just in domestic competitions.