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Fact Check: 2023 Indian Men’s Relay Team Video Wrongly Linked to Paris Olympics

Posted on by Vaseline

A video of the Indian men’s relay team surpassing teams like Great Britain and Japan to finish second behind the United States has been doing the rounds on social media. Users have shared the video with a caption claiming that the Indian men’s 4x400m relay team will qualify for the Paris Olympics.

The Facebook post read: “Indian Men’s 4x400m Relay Team Qualified for Paris Olympics as They Finished 2nd in Olympic Qualifiers. India in Relay Finals. #OlympicsINDIA.”

You can read the above message here. (Archive)

CHECK FACTS

NewsMobile has verified the claim and determined it to be misleading.

A keyword search can help you find the NM team found multiple articles confirming that the event will take place in August 2023. According to a report by The Hindu dated August 27, 2023, the Indian men’s 4x400m relay team set a new Asian record with a time of ‘2 minutes 59.05 seconds’. This performance secured their first-ever qualification for the World Championships finals in Budapest on August 26, 2023. The team, comprising Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh, finished second behind the USA (2:58.47) and advanced to the finals.

Another keyword search for X found a post by Derek O’Brien, a Trinamool Congress leader in Rajya Sabha, congratulating the Indian team on their achievement. The post, dated August 27, 2023, features the same footage from the event.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also praised the Indian relay team for their achievement and posted a video of the event on his official X account with the message: “Incredible teamwork at the World Athletics Championships! Anas, Amoj, Rajesh Ramesh and Muhammed Ajmal sprinted to the final and set a new Asian record in the M 4X400m relay. This will be remembered as a triumphant comeback, truly historic for Indian athletics.”

Despite their impressive qualification to the final, the Indian team failed to secure a podium finish, eventually finishing fifth at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.

It is to be noted that the Indian men’s and women’s teams in the 4x400m distance secured the quota for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games during the World Athletics Relays in Nassau, Bahamas on May 5, 2024.

So we can say with certainty that the 2023 video, in which the men’s relay team qualifies for the World Cup final for the first time and sets a new Asian record, is being shared with misleading claims.

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