Indian Women’s 4x400 Relay Team Win Olympic Qualification

NEW DELHI - Indian women 4x400m relay team qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games after giving a brilliant display by clocking 3:28.29s in the second leg of Asian Grand Prix at Korat, Thailand June 26.The team of Chitra K. Soman, Raja M. Pooyamma, Mandeep Kaur and S. Geetha ensured that they are among the World’s top 16 teams which will run in Beijing Olympics this August.They were followed by China (3:29.75s) and Thailand (3:38.76s) on the second and third sport respectively.Indian team had finished on seventh place in Athens Olympics in 2004 and since then, the team was on the winning spree on the continental level with title at Asian Games 2006, Asian Championships 2007 and silver in Commonwealth Games 2006.Slowdown in timing in 2007 raised doubt over team’s performance but it was largely due to transition of runners from junior to senior level.Emergence of Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose and consistent performance from Chitra Soman brought back the team in winning gear in 2008.National record holder Manjit Kaur who attained B qualification in Yalta got injured during Madurai Nationals and the June 26 race was without Manjit but still the team managed to register best timings since Athens 2004.As per Olympic qualification rule, average of two best performances of 2007 and 2008 will be considered and with the June 26 performance India’s average is 3:30.42s (3:32.55s in Bangkok and 3:28.20s in Korat) which still place India on 14th place in World top 16 teams. It’s now better than 14th placed Italy team
Source: http://www.indiajournal.com/pages/event.php?id=3770