New Delhi: The Indian women's 4x100m relay team will leave for Glasgow on Monday, hoping to clinch a medal at the 20th Commonwealth Games which gets underway on July 23.
The Indian 4x100m women's relay team surprised everyone at the 2010 Delhi CWG by winning the bronze against all odds.Two members of that team, HM Jyothi and Sarbani Nanda, incidentally are the oldest and the youngest member of the current team at 26 and 23 years respectively.
Jyothi, who is married to a former sprinter Srinivas and has a two-and a half-year old daughter, Dhruthi Hassini, said: "The ultimate aim is to win a medal at Glasgow but everybody in the team is also aiming to break the National record." The current National record in women's 4x100m stands at 44.43sec, while the 2010 CWG team clocked 45.23sec to notch up the bronze medal.
At the training camp in NIS Bangalore, the relay team has been pushing the clock to 44.70sec during practice, but sprint coach Dymitry from Ukraine, warns about the competition in Glasgow.
"The competition in women's 4x100m relay is the toughest. You have Jamaica, England, Nigeria and Australia. Our girls have been training hard for the 45 days they have been together in the camp and it all depends on how the baton is exchanged during the race," said Dymitry.
"One thing I'm sure about is that this is the best relay batch I have seen in the last five years in India."
The current members in the relay team are -- 2010 CWG bronze medalists Jyothi from Bangalore and Sarbani from Bhubhaneshwar, while the four new members in the team are Asha Roy from Kolkata, Sharadha Narayana from Chennai, Merlyn K Joseph and V Shantini from Kerala.
Both Jyothi and Sharadha will also be participating in the 100metre individual race.
Talking about the team, Jyothi said, "There is great understanding among all six of us. We may come from different backgrounds, speak five different languages and have a Ukranian coach, but we understand each other's body language which is the most crucial part during exchange of the baton."
Sharadha added, "There is a maximum difference of two-three years between the youngest and the oldest in this team. So, we blend well, train together for at least six hours a day, and if at all we have a language problem then we communicate in Hindi, and if that doesn't help then we translate it into English for the coach."
These girls admitted that the most difficult part of a relay race is the exchange of baton. "We have been focussing a lot on baton-concentration at the camps," said Sharadha.
Merlyn Joseph said, "We hope to emulate the achievement of India's women 4x400m relay team." The track and field competitions at 2014 CWG gets underway from July 27-August 2.
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