Chandigarh, March 27 – The first edition of the International Invitation Relay Competition in Chandigarh on Saturday will feature the country's top sprinters as they prepare to earn a spot in the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, Botswana.
The domestic competition on March 28 at the Sector 7 Sports Complex in Chandigarh will be the final event for the national relay teams to qualify for the global relays to be held on May 2 and 3 on African soil.
"We expect the members of the national relay teams to give their best and stay on course to earn passage to the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone," said chief athletics coach Radhakrishnan Nair.
Bhutan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Nepal are the other nations participating in the invitational relay competition.
The competition in Botswana will be held in six relay events – 4x100m (men and women), 4x400m (men and women), and a mixed relay (4x100m and 4x400m), the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said in a statement on Friday.
According to World Athletics guidelines, the qualification period started on January 1, 2025, and will end on April 5, 2026. Teams within the top 24 World Rankings on the Road to Gaborone will be eligible to compete in Botswana. "We have to give our best," said Animesh Kujur, the top male sprinter and national 100m/200m record holder.
Based on the national men's 4x100m relay performance of 38.75 seconds clocked last year on June 7 in Taipei, the current world ranking is 25. "A performance of 38.50 seconds will be good to qualify for the World Relays," the chief athletics coach added.
The national women's 4x100m relay is within the qualification zone, as the current world ranking is 23. The global ranking is based on a time of 43.86 seconds clocked at the 2025 Gumi Asian Athletics Championships.
The national 4x400m mixed relay is also on track to compete in Botswana due to their World Ranking of 22. The national team had clocked a time of 3:14.81 last year in Guangzhou, China.
Olympian Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK, national men's 400m record holder (45.12 seconds), will be key members of the national 4x400m relay team on Saturday.
The chief national athletics coach expressed confidence in a good performance on Saturday. "We are hopeful that the other four national relay teams will be successful in achieving the target time to board the flight to Botswana," Nair added.
World Athletics will announce the top 24 teams after April 5.
Simultaneously, the third edition of the National Open Relay Competition will be held at the same venue.