AFI includes men’s and women’s 4x100m relay events as 2026 Asian Games medal prospects

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has included the men’s and women’s 4x100m relays as priority events for the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, buoyed by the recent strong performances in domestic and international competitions.

Top AFI officials are expecting medals from the two events at the Asian Games to be held in Aichi-Nagoya from September 19 to October 4, 2026.

“The AFI has included men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams as a priority event for the 2026 Asian Games,” AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla said.

“A series of outstanding performances by relay teams augurs well for the future,” said Sumariwalla, vice-president of the World Athletics and former AFI president.

In April this year, the 4x100m relay team of Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Amlan Borgohain clocked 38.69 seconds to better the more than a decade-old national record of 38.89 seconds clocked at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Going by the timings of the top three finishers in the 2022 Games in Hangzhou, the country has a chance to finish on the podium in Japan in 2026.

China had won gold with a timing of 38.29 seconds while Japan (38.44 seconds) and South Korea (38.74 seconds) took the silver and bronze respectively.

In the women’s 4x100m relay, the team of Abhinaya Rajarajan, Srabani Nanda, Sneha SS and Nithya Gandhe clocked 43.86 seconds to win silver in the recent Asian Championships in Gumi, South Korea.

This performance by the Indians is much better than the 2022 Asian Games silver winning time of 44.32 seconds clocked by Thailand and 45.01 seconds clocked by bronze winner Malaysia.

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The women’s 4x100m relay gold in the 2022 Asian Games was won by China with a time of 43.39 seconds.

India did not send any 4x100m relay teams to the 2018 and 2022 Asian Games. The last time the Indian women’s 4x100m featured in the Asian Games was in the 2014 edition at Incheon, where the quartet of Sarbani Nanda, Asha Roy, Sharadha Narayana and H M Jyothi had finished sixth in the final with a time of 44.91 seconds.

The last time the Indian men’s 4x100m team competed in the Asian Games was in the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, where the quartet of Rahamatulla Molla, Sathya Suresh, Shameer Mon and Najeeb Qureshi had finished fourth in the final with a time of 39.10 seconds.

Sumariwalla said Reliance Academy in Mumbai will be the main training centre for the men’s 4x100m relay team, while the top female sprinters will be based at the National Centre of Excellence in Thiruvananthapuram to prepare for the upcoming international events.