India’s mixed 4x400m relay squad secured second place at the 2026 Asian Games, finishing in 3:14.46 at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium on Thursday.
Machettira Poovamma, Vishal Thennarasu, Ramraj Vithya and Thekkinalil Manu formed the Indian quartet, which narrowly held off Vietnam.
The Vietnamese team clocked 3:14.54, just 0.08 seconds slower than India. Bahrain won the title in a Games-record 3:12.87, with Japan fourth in 3:15.52.
The result maintained India’s podium presence in the mixed 4x400m relay across three successive Asian Games.
The team won gold in Jakarta in 2018 before taking silver in Hangzhou in 2023.
The silver medal added to Vishal Thennarasu’s recent achievements.
At the 2026 National Federation Senior Athletics Championships in Ranchi, he ran 44.98 seconds to become the first Indian athlete to break the 45-second mark in the men’s 400m and set a national record.
He had earlier collected mixed relay gold and men’s 4x400m relay silver at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.
Ramraj Vithya has competed at the Olympics, including in the 4x400m relay at Paris 2024. She also earned mixed relay silver and 400m hurdles bronze at the 2022 Asian Games.
MR Poovamma, an Arjuna Award recipient, has represented India in relay events for more than ten years.
Her Asian Games titles include women’s 4x400m relay gold at Incheon 2014 and Jakarta 2018, as well as mixed relay gold in Jakarta.
Manu Saji, an emerging 400m runner, previously won mixed relay gold at the 2022 Asian U20 Athletics Championships.
India’s slim advantage over Vietnam made the final a tense battle, but the quartet secured its place on the podium.
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