Srabani shines with relay silver on intl comeback

Time of India

6 days ago

Srabani Nanda made a comeback to the national team for the Asian Athletics Championships after almost three years having last competed for India in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.
There she competed in the 4x100m women's relay but the quartet of Nanda, Hima Das, Dutee Chand and Jyothi Yarraji narrowly missed the podium after finishing fourth in the final with a timing of 43.81 seconds.
It was a tough loss but the veteran sprinter turned back the clock on Saturday evening in Gumi, South Korea, to bag a silver medal in the same event with a timing of 43.86 seconds in the Asian meet.
Nanda ran the opening leg and was followed by Shena SS.
18-year-old Abhinaya Rajarajan then ran a blistering third leg while Nithya Gandhe was the anchor and crossed the finish line just behind China, who grabbed the gold with a timing of 43.28 seconds. Thailand grabbed the bronze medal.
The Odisha sprinter, who was quite disappointed with her performance during the Indian Open in Ranchi earlier this year, was expectedly over the moon on Saturday as she won her third Asian Athletics medal.
Speaking to TOI from Gumi, Nanda said, "I am very grateful. It's really nice and it's a happy and proud moment for me. In relay, it is all about teamwork and I want to thank all the team members for the support and the coordination so that we could deliver this result."
The 2010 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, meanwhile, was more than pleased with their baton exchanges, especially as the Indian men's 4x100m relay team were disqualified in the heats on Friday as an exchange was made outside the zone, and it was on everybody's mind.
But the women's team did it to perfection. "In relay, the plan is always to get the best exchanges and be confident to do it well. And we were able to do it," added Nanda. "Overall it was a very calm, cool and good race."
While her experience obviously played a huge role, the one-month training camp in Trivandrum after the Federation Cup under coach Seenivasan Ramaiah also made a big difference as they concentrated a lot on baton exchange, besides other key aspects of the race.
"We could find out where we were lacking and we could work on it to get the best result. We also got great support from all the other athletes who gave us a lot of competition during the training," said the 200m former national champion before adding, "The plan was always to deliver the best and be confident and I think we kind of did it. But there is still so much room to get better."
There's certainly no end to that but for now they can be happy with what they have achieved on the continental stage.