Chandigarh, March 27 The country's top sprinters will hope to earn their tickets for the World Athletics Relays in Botswana in May during the first edition of the International Invitation Relay Competition here on Saturday.
The domestic competition at the Sector 7 Sports Complex here will be the last event for the national relay teams to qualify for the World Relays to be held on May 2 and 3 in Gaborone, Botswana.
"We expect members of the national relay teams to give their best and stay on course to earn passage to the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone," chief athletics coach Radhakrishnan Nair said.
Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal are the other nations participating in the invitational relay competition.
Competition in Botswana will be held in six relay events – 4x100m (men and women), 4x400m (men and women) and mixed relay (4x100m and 4x400m).
As per World Athletics guidelines, the qualification period started from January 1, 2025 and will end on April 5, 2026. Teams within the 24th place on the Road to Gaborone will be eligible to compete in Botswana.
"We have to give our best," Animesh Kujur, top male sprinter and national 100m and 200m record holder, said.
Based on the national men's 4x100m relay performance of 38.75 seconds clocked last year in Chinese Taipei on June 7, the Indian team's current world ranking is 25.
"A performance of 38.50 seconds will be good to qualify for the World Relays," Nair added.
The national women's 4x100m relay team is within the qualification zone as its current world ranking is 23. The Indian team's global ranking is based on a time of 43.86 seconds clocked at the 2025 Gumi Asian Athletics Championships.
The national 4x400m mixed relay team is also on track to compete in Botswana due to its 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, the national men's 400m record holder (45.12 seconds), will be two key members of the 4x400m relay team on Saturday.
Nair exuded confidence of a good show 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," he said.
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.