India’s top athletes competing in the women’s 400m race at the Interstate Athletics Championships in Chennai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium were stuck as they were waiting at the starting line when called up 20 early minutes for the semi-final race.
Although the race was scheduled to start at 8pm, the eight runners in the first women’s 400m semi-final were called to the track at 7:40pm. According to the venue’s technical officials, it is customary to call players to the track from the warm-up area no more than a minute before their start time under any circumstances.
Instead of hearing pistols warming up, however, the athletes, including junior World medalist Priya Mohan, ended up standing as Tamil Sports Minister Nadu Siva V Meyyanathan, guest The main invite of the evening, began to speak.
The race finally started after Meyyanathan finished her speech nearly 20 minutes later. However, the delay is less than ideal for athletes who have had to wait a long time after having warmed up.
“When we warm up, it activates our muscles but when there is such a large time gap (between warm-up and the start of the race) our muscles contract as the body cools down. , this affects our performance,” agreed one runner after finishing the race, while her competitors agreed.
The 400m meet-up record of 51.13 was set by Hima Das in 2018. However, no athlete has come close to this time with a fastest time of 52.34 in the match. semi-finals first leg.
