India’s mixed 4x400m relay team bagged a bronze to clinch the country's fifth medal in the history of World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi on Wednesday.
The Indian team comprising Bharath S, Priya Mohan, Summy and Kapil clocked 3:20.60 seconds to finish third in the final. Nigeria and Poland won the gold and silver medals with timings of 3:19.70s and 3:19.80s respectively.
The Indian team, who won their heat comfortably, had entered the final as the second-best team with a championship record timing of 3:23.36s in the heat races held in the morning. The record was, however, short-lived as the athletes from Nigeria improved it by finishing their race in heat 2 with a timing of 3:21.66s.
However, there was a change in the Indian team for the final from the heat race with Bharath S running in place of Abdul Razzaq.
For Priya and Summy, the mixed 4x400m relay final was their third race of the day as both also featured in the individual 400m heats.
"We were inspired by Olympic javelin gold medallist Neeraj Chopra. We wanted to show the world that his win at the Olympics was not a fluke. Our win here will inspire many Indians to take up athletics," Priya Mohan said after the final race.
"It is a wonderful moment for me and my team-mates. It is a dream come true for us to win a medal at an international event and we want to thank World Athletics and our hosts Kenya for making it happen," said Bharath.
Before Wednesday's bronze in mixed 4x400m relay, India had won medals through Seema Antil (bronze in discus throw, 2002), Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (bronze in discus throw, 2014), Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra (gold in javelin throw, 2016) and Hima Das (gold in 400m, 2018) in the world U-20 meet.
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