Nassau (Bahamas).

The Indian men’s 4x400m relay team failed to complete its heat at the World Athletics Relays during the first round of the Paris Olympics qualification here on Sunday, with second leg runner Rajesh Ramesh ruled out with an injury. The Indian quartet of Mohammad Anas Yahiya, Rajesh Ramesh, Mohammad Ajmal and Amoj Jacob were hoping to secure a ticket to Paris by finishing in the top two in heat number four but Ramesh left the race midway after holding his left leg and staggering. Anas had completed the first phase of the race. There is no detailed information about the injury of Ramesh, who had earlier also participated in the mixed 4×400 meter relay.

India will have another chance during the second round of Olympic qualification on Monday where all the other teams that finished outside the top two in their respective heats on Sunday will try their luck to qualify for the Paris Games. The teams are expected to be divided into three heats and the top two teams from each of them will qualify for Paris. The same quartet of India had created an Asian record of two minutes 59.05 seconds in the 2023 Budapest World Championships. India had failed to progress beyond the heat round in the Tokyo Olympics.

India also failed to make it to the Paris Olympics in the women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relay on the first day of qualification. Both the Indian teams of mixed 4x400m and women’s 4x400m will have to wait for the second round to be held on Monday for Olympic qualification. In the mixed 4x400m event, the Indian quartet of Rajesh Ramesh, Rupal Chaudhary, Avinash Krishna Kumar and Jyotika Sri Dandi performed poorly, finishing sixth in heat number two with a timing of 3 minutes 20.36 seconds.

Later, the Indian quartet of Vithya Ramraj, MR Poovamma, Jyothika Sri Dandi and Subha Venkatesan finished fifth in heat number one of the women’s 4x400m with a timing of three minutes and 29.74 seconds. The top two teams in each of the four heats will qualify for the Paris Olympics to be held from July 16 to August 11. The remaining teams in all heats will compete again on Monday in another qualification round for the other six Paris Olympic spots. The format for all the five relays being held here – men’s and women’s 4x100m, men’s and women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m – is the same.