WATCH: India stun China to win 4x100m relay gold with season’s best time at 2026 Asian Relay Championships

Indian Women’s 4x100m Relay Team (Photo: AFI) NEW DELHI: The Indian women’s 4x100m relay team produced a spectacular performance to clinch gold at the 2026 Asian Relay Championships, defeating strong rivals China in a season’s best time of 43.85 seconds in a thrilling final.The quartet of Srabani Nanda, SS Sneha, Sudeshna Shivankar and Tamanna produced a near-perfect race, combining sharp baton exchanges and explosive speed at the finish line to edge ahead of China, who took the silver in 44.09 seconds. Thailand won the bronze in 44.11 seconds in an extremely close match.The Indian team, led by Reliance Foundation’s Martin Owens, executed their race plan with precision, calling it one of the most polished relay performances in recent years.

Strong individual brilliance powers India’s campaign

The gold medal capped off a successful encounter between Tamanna and Sneha Shanuvalli, who ended the championship with two medals each. Earlier, both of them played a key role in India’s 4x100m bronze medley relay team along with Animesh Kujur and Pranav Gurav.The mixed quartet clocked 41.27 seconds to secure third place behind Thailand (41.14s) and China (41.29s), keeping India competitive in the sprint relays.India also added silver in the 4x400m medley relay where Theerthesh P Shetty, MR Poovamma, Barath Sridhar and Neeru Pathak combined in a strong run to finish in 3:17.06 seconds behind Vietnam.WATCH: Indian team wins 4x100m gold

Mixed results in the 4x400m relays

Despite the sprint success, India faced disappointment in the 4x400m relay. The women’s team of MR Poovamma, Rashdeep Kaur, Ansa Babu and Saloni Nagar finished fourth in 3:34.88 seconds, missing out on the podium as Vietnam took the gold in 3:31.16.In the men’s 4x400m relay, Theerthesh P Shetty, Avinash Kumar, Suraj Alagar Raja and Barath Sridhar placed fifth with a time of 3:05.33 as Vietnam once again dominated the field to win the gold.

India finished with a haul of three medals

Overall, India ended the Championships with one gold, one silver and one bronze, underscoring a competitive but inconsistent campaign across the events. The overall medal potential was also affected by the absence of the men’s 4x100m team due to injury.The 2026 edition served as a key warm-up event ahead of a busy athletics calendar, including the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. India will next host the Asian Relay Championship in 2027 in Chandigarh.

Was India’s overall performance at the Asian Relay Championships satisfactory?