No relay squads for London Games

India's 4x400m women's relay squad, that made it to the final at the Beijing Olympics four years back, will not feature at the London Games.

This was confirmed when the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) decided against fielding any relay team for the final Olympic qualification event — the July 1 Asian All-Star Meet at Almaty, Kazhakstan.

The decision also closed the doors on the dope-tainted relay runners —Ashwini Akkunji, Sini Jose, Mandeep Kaur — whose one-year bans end before the Almaty meet.

Justifying the decision a AFI official said: "We didn't have any chance of qualification. The girls who are trying to make a comeback after the ban are not in shape while the present relay squad was not good enough."

With a timing of 3:36.82; the second-string team of Debashree Mazumdar, Saraswai Sundram, Ratandeep Kaur and MR Poovamma were not in contention to be among the top-16 team s that make it to the Olympics.

Meanwhile, Atheltics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille J. Sumariwalla said on Monday that the relay squads were not being fielded because of the lack of entries from other nations at the Almaty. "I have heard that there has not been enough entries for the relay events at the Asian All-Star," Sumariwalla said.

However, it is learnt that the Almaty meet does have all four relay events, including the men's 4x100 and the 4x400, scheduled.

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