India’s relay groups on verge of lacking Olympic qualifiers in Poland because of flight suspension

Star sprinters Hima Das and Dutee Chand would possibly miss the Olympic qualifying World Athletics Relays in Poland on May 1 and a couple of because the Indian staff’s connecting flight to Amsterdam has been suspended following the record-shattering spike within the nation’s COVID-19 case load.
The ladies’s 4x100m and the boys’s 4x400m relay groups have been to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam within the wee hours on Thursday however the Dutch authorities has suspended flights from India efficient Monday night.
The Athletics Federation of India is attempting to e-book an alternate flight accessible to any European metropolis en path to Silesia in Poland the place the occasion will likely be held. There is not any direct flight to Poland from India.
“There is a serious doubt that our team may not be able to take part in the World Relays. Many European countries have suspended flights from India. So, we may be stuck and there is a high possibility that the team may not go for the event,” a high AFI official instructed PTI.
“But still we are trying, talking to the government and to our embassies if they can help our athletes to fly in any European city like Frankfurt from where they can proceed to Poland. We are also trying for any connecting flight to Dubai or any other West Asian city.”
S Dhanalakshmi, who had crushed Dutee within the ultimate of girls’s 100m dash within the Federation Cup final month, was additionally named within the staff, together with Archana Suseendran, Himashree Roy and AT Daneshwari.
India can even subject groups within the males’s 4x400m within the occasion to be held in Chorzow, Silesia, in Poland.
The high eight groups from the World Athletics Relays will mechanically qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
The ladies’s 4x400m relay staff has pulled out of the occasion as greater than two members are unfit.
The Indian blended 4x400m relay staff has already certified for the Tokyo Olympics after reaching the ultimate throughout the 2019 World Championships in Doha.
The AFI was hopeful of the ladies’s 4x100m relay staff qualifying for the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo.
The World Relays would be the first main worldwide occasion for Indian sprinters because the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha in April 2019.