The Indian girls’ medley relay team ran a brilliant race to qualify for the finals of the event at the fifth World Youth Athletics Championships at Ostrava, Czech Republic.
The team of Srabani Nanda, Shriya Vidwans, Anu Mariam Jose and M R Poovamma clocked their best ever timing of two minutes, 10.53 seconds to finish a close second behind Canada (2:10.13) in the third heat and book a place in the final.
The Indian foursome were fifth among the eight teams that made it to the medal round. Medley relay consists of four athletes running 100M, 200M, 300M and 400M respectively.
Srabani started the race at good speed for India and handed over the baton to Vidwans at the 100M mark. The Maharashtra girl carried on the good work before Anu Mariam Jose took over.
The 400M leg was run by Poovamma, who had become the first Indian athlete to qualify for the finals of an event at the World Youth Championships at the ongoing meet. She ran a superb lap to edge out Barbados’ Griffith Latoya at the finish line.
Meanwhile, India’s Manpreet Kaur finished ninth in the girls’ shot put final with a best throw of 13.57M. Manpreet, whose best effort came in her second try, disappointed as the last three of her six attempts were fouls. She managed 13.01M and 13.03M in her first and third throws respectively.
She was way behind her personal best of 14.49M and her best effort of the season, 14.42M.