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Editor’s note: Thanks for your comments on our new column on Indian Athletics! Rupinder Singh is giving our global readers a true appreciation for the successed and challenges in Athletics in India. In this piece, Rupinder opines on the long relays in India.
An interesting case study of India’s progress, or lack of it, lies in the 400 m and 4 x 400 m relay.
While the entire country was celebrating India’s only gold medal at the 2026 asian games in Nagoya with a timing of 3:29.67 I as an active participant and follower of the sport for 57 years was left wondering about the progression or the lack of it in the 4x 400 m relay both men and women and individual makes for an interesting analysis.
Without taking away anything from the 2026 team, a small statistic hit me hard. The Indian women have reached the 4 x 400 m Olympics final twice, in 1984 and 2004. Our national record was set by the Fab Four in the 2004 Olympics, where Beena Malathi, Manju Singh, Chitra Soman, and Ravinder Kaur clocked 3:26:89 . Now it’s for everyone to decide for themselves if indian women 4 x 400 team has made any progress in the last 22 years and why, despite improved tracks, spikes, and sports science, etc., India has failed to improve for 22 years in an event marked as priority event in the sports ministry.
Worse still, the question my mind raises is: DOES ANYONE EVEN CARE?
Let’s now move on to the men’s 4 x 400 m relay. India’s golden moment in the men’s 4 x 400 m relay came as recently as 2023, when our team set the world ablaze, running neck and neck with the mighty USA, clocking our national record of 2:59.05 .
Incidentally, a country called Botswana finished behind us.
Fast forward to today, B
Botswana has been winning the world 4 x 400 relay, beating the USA consistently, and had one of the finest 400 m individual runners in 2026.
Meanwhile, at the recent Asian Games, India finished third with 3:01.79.
Now I leave it to the readers to judge for themselves: are we progressing