Asian Games 2023: Indian 4x400m mixed relay team's bronze upgraded to Silver after Sri Lanka's disqualification

The Indian relay team consisting of Muhammed Ajmal, Vithya Ramraj, Rajesh Ramesh, and Subha Venkatesan, proudly secured a silver medal in the 4x400m Mixed Relay team event at the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023.

Initially, India secured the third position with a time of 3:14.34s, while Sri Lanka claimed the second spot with a timing of 3:14.25s. Bahrain emerged as the race winners, completing the event in 3:14.02s.

However, India's position in the race was elevated to second place as a result of Sri Lanka's disqualification due to a violation of the rules pertaining to lane infringement (TR 17.3.1). Consequently, Kazakhstan’s team, who initially held the fourth position with a timing of 3:24.85s, were announced as the recipients of the bronze medal in the event.

The Indian team achieved this feat with an individual leg time of 43.14s by Muhammed Ajmal, 54.19s by Vithya Ramraj, 45.77s by Rajesh Ramesh and 51.24s by Subha Venkatesan.

According to World Athletics rule TR 17.3.1, in all races: 17.3.1 run in lanes, each athlete shall keep within their allocated lane from start to finish. This shall also apply to any portion of a race run in lanes.

In addition, it is noteworthy that India held the title of defending champions in the aforementioned event, owing to the fact that their previous accomplishment of winning the silver medal in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games was subsequently upgraded to gold.

In 2018, the Indian team, comprising Muhammad Anas, MR Poovamma, Hima Das, and Arokia Rajiv, recorded a time of 3:15.71s. But Bahrain, the team that initially finished first, was later disqualified due to the detection of stanozolol, a banned substance, in one of their runners, Kemi Adekyoa's test.

With 60 medals in the list including 13 gold, 24 silver and 23 bronze, India have still held the fourth position in the Asian Games 2023 medal tally table.