CHENNAI: ‘A real threadbare group of very inexperienced athletes,’ is how national men’s 4x100m relay team coach James Hillier summarised his team, as the men’s team was let down by last-minute injuries and baton exchanges at the World Athletics Relays 2026 in Botswana earlier this month.
Manikanta Hoblidhar and Amlan Borgohain – two of the men’s team regulars — did not take part in this event as they were injured. Harsh Raut and Tamil Arasu were brought in as replacement, but Arasu got injured while running in the mixed relays in the same competition.
While it went well on Day 1 for the Indian quartet (they finished with a season best mark of 39.07s in qualifying round 1), there were signs of concerns on Day two. The Indian team got disqualified as Ragul Kumar – Arasu’s replacement — fell in the third leg and failed to pass it to Gurindervir Singh who was waiting in the final leg.
Hillier, taking full responsibility for India’s poor show, said that the team cracked under pressure, as they were inexperienced. “We have to be realistic with these guys. This is a very high-pressure situation. I told AFI, before we left, that this is a real step up in class for a lot of these guys. They haven't even been overseas, let alone competed at a World Champs. The standard was so high. So, I think it's inevitable that they're going to feel the pressure and it's inevitable that mistakes are going to happen,” he said on the sidelines of the Indian Open Athletics Series - 6 which concluded here on Sunday.
“What we now have to do is not chastise the people that made the mistakes, but more look at what happened and what we can do in the future to fix it,” he added.
Coming to the baton exchange between Ragul and Gurindervir, Hillier said that this exchange was not ‘well practiced.’ It is also because Arasu was the designated runner in the team before his injury. “Ragul into Guri, we had only practiced a couple of times. It was always a risky move, putting Ragul into the third leg. Losing Tamil through injury was a real problem for us. So I had to bring Harsh Raut in. Harsh has never run a relay in his life! The first time he ruins a relay is in this World event,” he revealed.
While Hillier said it is great that the novices are getting a taste of the highest level in relays, he needs experienced athletes, when one in the main quartet gets injured. "You need a blended mixture of experience and inexperience. And we just had, apart from Animesh (Kujur), you know, the other three guys were pretty inexperienced. Guri (Gurindervir), we're trying on the fourth leg, of course, he was on the first leg for the national record-winning team. I want to look at him there and see whether he's a better fit there. I'm just trying a few things. Some will work, some won't. But ultimately, it's all gearing towards the Asian Games, trying to get the best team there. If we make a few mistakes along the way, so be it. But I'm very optimistic. Come Asian Games, we'll get all our guys fit," he said.
Hillier confirmed that the quartet will take part in events in Saudi Arabia later this week and Chinese Taipei in June.