India added another athletics medal to its tally at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday when the mixed 4×400 metres relay team won silver.
The quartet of Poovamma Raju Machettira, Vishal Thennarasu, Manu TS and Vithya Ramraj finished in 3 minutes 14.46 seconds.
Bahrain claimed gold in a Games record of 3:12.87. Vietnam took bronze in 3:14.54, just eight hundredths of a second behind India.
India started steadily. Vishal opened the race, Poovamma ran a determined second leg, and Manu kept the team in medal contention before handing over to Vithya. With India appearing set for bronze, Vithya produced a powerful finishing kick over the closing 50 metres, overtaking Vietnam and securing second place.
The result successfully defended the silver the same event produced at the 2023 Hangzhou Games and lifted India’s overall medal count at these Games. It was also India’s second athletics podium finish of the day after Seema Kumari’s bronze in the women’s 10,000 metres.
