Indians disappoint in World Relays

The Indians disappointed in World Relays with both the men's and women's 4x400m teams finishing at 17th position while the mixed 4x400m quartet stood 15th here on Saturday.

The top 10 finishers in both the men's and women's 4x400m relays and the top 12 in the mixed 4x400m qualify for the World Championships to be held in Doha in September-October.

The women's 4x400m quartet of Hima Das, M R Poovamma, Saritaben Gayakwad and V R Vismaya finished fourth in heat number 3, clocking 3 minutes 31.93 seconds, but that was good enough for a 17th place finish overall.

Hima Das, who was a doubtful starter despite being named in the team after her lower back injury during the Asian Championships, ran the first leg and she was joint second in 52.60 when she handed the baton to Poovamma.

But India dropped down to sixth by the time Poovamma completed the second leg. India was still at sixth after Gayakwad completed the third leg but Vismaya, who ran the final leg, made some recovery to take the team to fifth. But after the Ukraine team was disqualified, India jumped to fourth in the heat.

The Indian team's timing was a shade better than the silver-winning effort of 3:32.21 in the Asian Championships without Hima Das last month.

In the men's 4x400m relay, the quartet of Kunhu Muhammed, Jithu Baby, Jeevan Suresh and Muhammed Anas finished sixth and last in heat number 2 with a timing of 3:06.05. The team finished 17th and last overall also. Arokia Rajiv did not run the race.

The mixed 4x400m relay team of Jithu Baby, Sonia Baishya, Prachi and Antony Alex finished fifth in the heat and 15th overall with a time of 3:23.59.