Indian quarter-miler Nirmala Sheoran on Friday secured her Rio Olympics berth after clocking an impressive 51.48 seconds in the women's 400 metre category in the National Inter-State Senior Athletics championships at the G.M.C. Balayogi Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday.
India continued their stranglehold in women's 4x400m relay event in the Asian Games as its quartet ran a brilliant race to win the gold for the fourth time on the trot in Games record time in the 17th edition in Incheon on Thursday.
India's 572 athletes hope to return home with an overflowing treasure chest of medals.
India was deprived of at least three medals at the Asian Cross Country Championships in Bahrain due to an apparent goof-up by the Athletics Federation of India which did not field the required number of participants to be considered for team standings. India fielded three athletes each in senior men, senior women, junior men and junior women categories in the championships and except in case of the first, the country should have won a team bronze each in the remaining three as they secured the third highest aggregate points. But strangely, India did not get any medal in the championships held in Manama. Sources told PTI this was due to the reason that each country was to field four runners in each event though only the top three would be considered for counting of aggregate points for team results. India fielded only three runners in each event. Points are counted according to the position of each runner like one point for the winner, two for the second-place finisher and three for the third. The team which gets the lowest aggregate point will get the gold and so on.
The women's 4x400m relay quartet lived up to their expectations by clinching a gold after a brilliant race as India ended their athletics campaign with an impressive haul of 13 medals in the 17th Asian Games in Incheon on Thursday.
