World Under-20 Athletics – Heats offered us hope, says Barath Sridhar

No coach or physio, but Indians pull off relay surprise

When a small Indian team left Mumbai at the last minute for the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Colombia, Barath Sridhar did not think the side would win a relay medal, as the country had done in last year’s edition in Nairobi.

“We did not have a coach, no physio either, so we did not think we had a chance,” Sridhar told The Hindu from Cali on Thursday evening, a few hours after India’s silver medal show in the 4x400m mixed relay.

“But when we won our heats, we thought we had a medal chance.”

Meanwhile Priya H. Mohan, who like Sridhar and Kapil had been a part of the bronze-winning team at the 2021 Nairobi under-20 Worlds, wanted to prove a point.

“Last time, many strong teams were missing, but this time almost all of them were there. So, we wanted to win a medal badly. In fact, we were going for gold, we felt the US girls were a little weak,” said Priya, who was also fourth in the individual 400m at the last Worlds.

And Rupal Chaudhary, who ran an impressive anchor leg, felt she had it in her to get the gold.

“If I had taken it a little easy at the start, I could have beaten the American (Kaylyn Brown),” said Rupal, who hails from Jainpur village near Meerut, who was running in her first major international championship. The Americans took the gold after the close finish.