World Athletics Relays: Indian men's and mixed 4x400m return empty handed

It was a forgettable outing for the Indian relay teams at the 2025 World Athletics Relays event as neither of the men's and mixed 4x400m teams were able to secure a 2025 World Athletics Championships quota in Guangzhou, China, on Sunday.

The Indian mixed team missed out on quota by a single spot, finishing fourth in the second qualification round, whereas the men's team finished in seventh place in the men's qualification round.

The Indian team made a tactical change in the squad today and gave it all for the mixed team event, choosing the best possible quartet, including the two top performers from last night's men's relay team.

This tactic almost worked for India as the quartet of Santhosh Kumar T, Rupal, Vishal TK and Subha Venkatesan clocked a season best time of 3:14.81s, bettering the previous record by two seconds.

But, it wasn't enough for the team as they finished fourth, behind Italy, France, and Canada. Only three World Championship spots were up for grabs in each heat.

Later, the inexperienced men's team of Jay Kumar, Dharamveer Choudhary, Manu TS, Rince Joseph, clocked a time of 3:04.49s to finish 7th in the heat-1 and missed out on World Championships quota in men's 4x400m.

The Indian teams, however, are still not completely out of the World Championships running as there will be two more final spots based on the World top list at the end of August 2025.