World Athletics Relays: Indian 4*400 men and mixed team fail to qualify for final

The Indian men's and mixed 4x400m relay teams finished in 15th position respectively in the first round and missed out on a spot in the final of the 2025 World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China, on Saturday.

The teams also missed out on the first chance of booking a 2025 Tokyo World Championships quota, as all the finalists earned a direct spot for the global event.

However, the Indian teams can still qualify for the World Championships via the second qualification round, which will be held on Sunday. There are six more quota places offer for teams, who missed out on the first day.

The day started for India with the mixed 4*400m event where the team of Jay Kumar, Rupal Chaudhary, Dharamveer, and Sneha K clocked an Asian lead time of 3:16.85s to finish fifth in the third heat.

Although the Indian team missed out on the final, but will be hoping to better their time in the second round, where they will face fierce competition from teams like Spain, Germany, and Jamaica.

Later in the day, the Indian men's 4*400m team of Santhosh Kumar, Manu TS, Vishal TK, and Mohit Kumar took the centre stage in the Preliminary round.

However, they had a similar result and missed out on the final, despite a strong opening leg from Santosh and finished in 5th position in the final heat with a season best time of 3:03.92s.

The team has their task cut out as they will have to fight again for the world championships quota on Sunday against the top teams like Olympic champion USA, Spain, and the Netherlands.