Beenamol

New Delhi: The Indian women’s 4x400m relay team moved closer to an Olympic berth, clocking a new a national record to win gold in the second leg of the 2004 Asian Grand Prix series in Colombo.

India, who were ranked 20th by the IAAF in the last Athens relay qualification list, will now move up several places to be in strong contention for an Olympic berth. The top 16 nations will qualify for Athens with the cut-off date set for July 21.

According to information received here, the quartet of Manjit Kaur, K.M. Beenamol, Rajwinder Kaur and Chitra K. Soman clocked 3:27.35 — India’s first sub-3:28 time.

They erased the mark set by Beenamol, Paramjit Kaur, Jincy Philips and Manjima Kuriakose in Chennai on July 31, 2000.

In the first leg of the GP series in Songkla, Thailand, last week, the Indians had clocked 3:29.53 seconds.

India bagged three gold, four silver and two bronze medals in Sunday’s meet.

The men’s 4x400 relay team — comprising Ramachandran, Bhupinder Singh, K.M. Binu and Satbir Singh — kept its Olympic hopes alive clocking 3:04.30 to strike gold. That timing, however, was slower than the 3:03.15 they achieved in Songkla.

India’s B team finished a distant third in 3:26.34, behind Sri Lanka (3:04.46).

The third gold was claimed by Manjit in women’s 400m, in a time of 52.52 seconds.

India’s silver winners were K.J. Manoj Lal (men’s 400), Navpreet Singh (men’s shot put), Neelam J. Singh (women’s discus) and J.J. Shobha (women’s long jump).

Shobha, whose pet event is heptathlon, also won the bronze in 100m hurdles clocking 13.91 seconds.

Manoj Lal came far behind Sri Lankan Rohan Fernando (45.78) in 46.75 seconds. Navpreet, who won gold in the first leg, managed only a disappointing 18.13m.

Neelam came second with an effort of 60.63m which was way behind the 64.30 that fetched China’s Li Yan Feng the gold.

Shobha leaped a distance of 6.63m in women’s long jump to establish herself as India’s No. 2 in the event behind world No. 4 Anju Bobby George.

The third and final leg of the GP series will be held in Manila on Thursday.