The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Indian men's team goes out of top-16 bracket

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Indian men's team goes out of top-16 bracket

NEW DELHI, JULY 19. Following the results in the African athletics championships in Brazzaville, Congo, at least two teams should move into the top-16 bracket in the men's 4x400m relay rankings, thus forcing India out of the race for the Athens Olympics.

Nigeria and South Africa are the teams that should take the 14th and 15th places in the men's longer relay rankings, moving the Dominican Republic, now ranked 14th to the 16th slot. India

(average time 3:03.72), now at the 15th place will thus slide down to 17th with Sri Lanka taking the 18th place.

Nigeria clocked 3:02.66 for the second place in Brazzaville, behind Zimbabwe (3:02.38), while South Africa was third in 3:03.81. Nigeria has a 3:04.49 from the All-Africa Games in Abuja last year while South Africa has a 3:03.05 from the Paris World championships. The average of the two best timings of a team is taken into consideration for ranking purposes. Zimbabwe does not have a good second timing to fall back on apart from the 3:05.35 it clocked in the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad last year. That is, however, not sufficient to earn a top-16 place.

The women's 4x400m rankings have not been disturbed by the results in the African championships. India is currently placed 13th and should qualify easily, with just two days left for the relay deadline.

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