Women's relay gold winners aim for a repeat in London Olympics

The women's 4x400m relay team celebrate after winning gold yesterday

Manjeet has had different roles to play every time India has won a gold medal in the women's 4x400m relay across the last three Asian Games. In the 2002 Asiad in Busan, she ran fourth, while in the 2006 Doha Asiad, she ran second and yesterday she ran first at the Aoti Sports Complex. And on all three occasions, India won gold.u00a0u00a0

In fact, yesterday, the quartet of Manjeet, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji and Mandeep clinched the yellow metal in an Asian Games record timing of 3:29.02 seconds, ahead of Kazakhstan's silver (3:30.03) and China's bronze medal-winning effort (3:30.89).

Moments after the race, Manjeet told MiD DAY that as she has matured with time and she has taken up a tougher role in the event.

"In 2002, I ran last and then in Busan I ran second. But then the coaches decided that since I'm the senior-most runner here among the four, I should start the race. Thankfully, I did well enough, though according to me I didn't have the best of starts," Manjeet said.

The awesome foursome had also won the gold at last month's Commonwealth Games in Delhi, and Manjeet said the pressure of repeating that performance was a bit too much. "After Delhi everyone expected us to win a gold here too, so we were under a lot of pressure. Thankfully, we pulled it off well," added the 28-year-old.
The race had its moments, but none closer than the last leg run by Mandeep. She ran the final leg perfectly even as Kazakhstan's Marina Maslyonko got too close for comfort.

"I could sense that she was coming in behind me but I had made up my mind that I will not let her get past me, come what may," said Mandeep who ran her first Asiad 4x400 relay yesterday.

"I was there in the Doha team, but I was the spare runner. This time I'm glad I've proved myself worthy of being in the starting four," said Mandeep who has been under the weather since the Delhi Games.
"I had a severe chest infection after the CWG and was unable to train in the time between. I only managed a couple off training sessions after coming here," said the 22-year-old.

Ashwini Akkunji, winner of the 400m women's hurdles' gold medallist, and Sini Jose, who ran second and third respectively, did well to maintain the first place before handing over the baton to Mandeep for the final flourish. It's London Calling now for the four girls. "We finished a poor seventh at the Beijing Asian Games and want to improve on that finish at the London Olympics," said Manjeet.

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