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The Indian athletics campaign at the ongoing Paris Olympics ended as the men's 4x400 m relay race team fell just short of reaching the medal round, finishing fifth and 11th overall in the qualification round on Friday.
Indian men's team clocked the timings of 3:00.58, their season-best, during the round one heat two to finish at the fourth spot in their heats race and overall at 11th. Only the top three teams in each heat race and the next two fastest teams across both heats were given the privilege to qualify further. Amoj Jacob, Rajesh Ramesh, Muhammed Ajmal and Muhammed Anast took to the field for India while Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan sat out. Ajmal was the quickest among Indian runners, timed at 44.60 seconds. France (2:59.53), Nigeria (2:59.81) and Belgium (2:59.84) outclassed the Indians and advanced to the final from heat two, as per Olympics.com. Earlier in heat one, Botswana (2:57.76), Great Britain (2:58.88), the USA (2:59.15), Japan (2:59.48) and Zambia (3:00.08) took their spots in the final. Coming to the Indian women's quartet of Jyothika Sri Dandi, Machettira Raju Poovamma, Vithya Ramraj and Subha Venkatesan, they clocked timings of 3:32.51 during the first round of the women's 4x400 m relay event. However, this timing could just earn them just the eighth spot in the heat and 15th overall, causing them to miss out on the final. Jyothika was the fastest Indian runner among all, with the best timing of 51.30 seconds. A major highlight for India in their athletics campaign was Neeraj Chopra, who secured a silver medal in the men's javelin throw final. Chopra fell short of retaining his gold medal in the men's javelin throw at the ongoing marquee event securing silver with a best throw of 89.45 meters.Nadeem won gold with a throw of 92.97 meters, setting a new Olympic record and surpassing Denmark's Andreas Thorkildsen's mark from Beijing 2008. Grenada's Anderson Peters secured bronze with a throw of 88.54 meters. Earlier, Chopra had achieved a throw of 89.34 meters in the Group B qualification round, his second-best all-time throw. Despite a competitive rivalry with Nadeem, where Chopra led 9-0 in their head-to-head matchups, Nadeem's throw of 90.18 meters at the 2022 Commonwealth Games exceeded Chopra's top effort. Grenada's Anderson Peters secured the bronze with an 88.54 meters throw. (ANI)
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