India’s mixed 4×400 relay team clinched a silver medal, bettering its own Asian record time, in the final of the World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Cali, Colombia, on Tuesday night.
The quartet of Barath Sridhar, Priya Mohan, Kapil and Rupal Chaudhary clocked 3 minutes, 17.67 seconds to finish behind the United States (3:17.69).
The Indian team bettered its own Asian record of 3:19.62s, set a day earlier during the heats. The new timing of 3:17.67s is the second-best (in juniors) in the all-time list in the event, behind the USA's.
The team qualified for the final as second overall across the three heats, behind US.
This was India's second consecutive medal in mixed 4x400m relay at the World Under-20 Athletics Championships after the bronze in the last edition in 2021, in Nairobi, where the event was introduced for the first time.
Rupal is the only new member in the quartet that won bronze last year while Sridhar, Priya and Kapil were in that team.
The silver medal-winning performance was all the more impressive as most of the Indians reached the venue just a day before the start of the event after an onerous journey due to visa issues.
Jamaica took the bronze in 3:19.98s.
India won two silver and a bronze in the last edition.
On Tuesday, Rupal and Priya also made it to the 400 metres semi-finals after strong performances in the first round heats.
Rupal won heat in 52.50s, while Priya clocked 52.56s to finish second in heat number 5.
Rupal was second overall across five heats, while Priya was fourth. Priya had finished fourth in the 400m final in the last edition in Nairobi in 2021.
The 15-year-old Ashakiran Barla failed to make it to the women's 800m final after finishing fifth in heat 3 and 15th overall in the semi-finals with a time of 2:06.86s.
The top two in each heat and next two fastest across the three semi-final heats qualify for the final.
