Women's relay team breaks 18-year-old national record

Led by Dutee Chand, the women's relay team has smashed the 18 year old national record with their sprint at IAAF World Challenge in Beijing, making it to the 4th position in the competition.  This being a qualifying event for the Olympics, the team is aiming to make the cut for Rio with their performance. The last time an Indian relay team reached an Olympic final was 12 years ago in Athens.

Apart from Dutee Chand, the team comprising of Srabani Nanda, HM Jyoti and Merlin Joseph clocked 44.03s to finish the race. The record 18 years ago was a timing of 44.43s created by the quartet of Saraswati Dey, Rachita Mistry, EB Shyla and PT Usha on July 22, 1998 in Fukuoka, Japan. Merlin started the race with Jyoti running the second followed by the Srabani with Dutee running the anchor leg.

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The host nation, China A team got the gold medal, while the Japanese team took second place and the silver medal. China B team finished third for the bronze medal.

The team is ready now to fly to Taiwan for their next challenge on Thursday at the Taiwan Open Athletics Championships 2016.

Feature Image Credit: timesofindia.indiatimes.com