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Men’s relay team comes into focus

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: With the entire focus on Olympic qualification being fixed on the women’s longer relay team, not many would have thought that the Indian men’s 4x400m relay team also could come into reckoning.

Though it is quite a distance away from making the Beijing Olympic Games grade, the men’s team, scheduled to compete in the last Asian Grand Prix meet in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Monday, is not hopelessly placed as it was at the beginning of the year.

With a best of 3:07.94, India was 41st in the world lists (not necessarily comprising Olympic qualifying events) last year.

When it clocked 3:07.34 while upsetting Sri Lanka in the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix series on June 23, it still could not have dreamt of coming anywhere close to qualification.

Outside chance

However, the 3:04.57 that India timed in winning the second leg at Korat, Thailand, last Thursday has given it an outside chance.

Currently, with an average of 3:05.9, it does not figure in the top-20 rankings. Yet, a time under 3:04 in Hanoi can bring the team into the top-16 fold, excluding the possibilities that could emerge after the last of the relay qualification events are gone through in Europe in July.

With the Madurai inter-State turning out timings of 46.32 and 46.82 for the top two in the individual 400 metres, K. M. Binu and Bipin Mathew, a time of 3:04 for the relay team was all but ruled out.

As it turned out, the team clocked its second-best since the 1998 Asian Games (3:02.62) behind the 3:04.22 achieved at the Busan Asian Games in 2002.

The team at Korat comprised Bipin, Binu, Bhupinder Singh and S.K. Mortaza.

There is a chance of Saudi Arabia figuring in the men’s longer relay event in Hanoi.

It was entered originally but did not compete in Bangkok and Korat. Saudi Arabia has a best of 3:04.74 from last year and should have been looking to clinch its place in the Olympics through the series. It does not figure in the top 20 now.

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