The Indian men’s 4x400m relay quartet shattered the Asian record during the heats on Friday but missed qualifying for the Olympics final by a whisker.
The quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Tom Noah Nirmal, Rajiv Arokia and Amoj Jacob completed the race in 3:00.25 to finish fourth in the second heat. They ended at the ninth spot overall, just missing out on the eight-team final line-up.
The earlier Asian record belonged to Qatar, who had clocked 3:00.56 while winning gold in the 2018 Asian Games.
Anas tweeted: “Really happy with the team’s performance and the new record but gutted to have not made it to the finals.”
Halted by heat
In Sapporo, India’s Gurpreet Singh failed to finish the men’s 50km race walk, pulling out after the 35km mark due to cramps under hot and humid conditions.
The 37-year-old, one of the lowest ranked athletes in the event, was 51st at the 35km mark. The temperature at the Sapporo Odori Park was around 25°C when the event started and rose to above 30°C when it ended after 9am local time. The humidity was at 80 per cent.
Fifty-nine athletes started but 12 either did not finish or were disqualified.
Dawid Tomala of Poland won the gold, while Jonathan Hilbert of Germany and Canada’s Evan Dunfee took the silver and bronze, respectively.
Punia coach sacked
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Friday terminated the services of Deepak Punia’s Belarusian coach Murad Gaidarov after it emerged that he had assaulted a referee.
The assault led to Gaidarov’s expulsion from the Tokyo Games.
Deepak lost his 86kg bronze medal play-off on Thursday, after which Gaidarov went to the referee’s room and assaulted the referee who had officiated in the bout.
“Gaidarov is being sent back to India so that he can collect all his belongings and then leave for his country,” WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar said.
