After their historic sub-3 minute race in the World Championships heats, relay team members Muhammed Anas, Amoj Jacob, and Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi were taken aback by the absence of their anchor leg star, Rajesh Ramesh, on the team bus they had boarded in Budapest.
Rajesh, who had given his all during the race, was being carried off on a stretcher due to the intense effort. “We didn’t even realize for a while that Ramesh hadn’t joined us. But when we realised, we rushed back to look for Ramesh. He was being carried off on a stretcher. We asked him if he was okay. He just kept saying lactic, lactic,” said Amoj in a conversation with The Indian Express. Rajesh’s extreme exertion had taken a toll, causing him to vomit and experience severe cramps.
The relay team’s back-to-back sub-three-minute races in the heats and finals were unexpected highlights of the Budapest Worlds. The team had entered the competition with low expectations, but they proved everyone wrong.
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“Honestly nobody had any hopes on us. People thought we were here just to participate but we have proved them wrong,” says Ramesh while talking to The Indian Express. Even their competitors were impressed by the Indians’ performance.
“After the race, Netherlands, the Jamaicans came to congratulate us. They told us this is how you run a race,” says Rajesh Ramesh. For coach Raj Mohan MK, this success was a form of redemption.
He had faced harsh criticism after the team’s poor performance in the previous edition of the World Championships. The team’s journey from that point to their current achievement has been quite a transformation.
“We have been working really hard for this. Nobody believed that Indians could go below 3 minutes and we did it twice. In the finals, we were actually going for the medal,” says Mohan according to a report by The Indian Express. The relay team’s exceptional performance in the heats was characterized by fast lap times from each member.
Their coach and foreign coach provided encouragement and support, boosting their confidence for the future. “Since 2016, we were expected to run 2:59 but it never happened. It happened today,” Anas had told reporters after the heats.
Despite their achievement, the team knew that the final race awaited. Unlike their opponents, they couldn’t substitute runners for the final. Rest and hydration were paramount as they prepared for the ultimate challenge. “We were all dead. Back in the hotel room, all we did was hydrate ourselves. We tried sleeping but it was so hard with the adrenaline rush,” says Amoj as quoted by The Indian Express. The journey from being underestimated to becoming victorious had been a remarkable one for the relay team, filled with emotions and determination.