Defying age, Srabani Nanda headlines India’s historic women’s 4x100m World Relays entry

Srabani Nanda will turn 35 next week.

While many athletes consider retirement at this stage, Nanda continues to strive for more accolades. After claiming silver in the women’s 4x100m relay at last year’s Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea, she has now been selected for the World Relays in Gaborone, Botswana, scheduled for May 2 and 3.

The Odisha sprinter has been named not only in the women’s 4x100m relay squad but also in the mixed relay team, and she is more than eager to give her best. The World Relays appearance is particularly significant, as it represents a milestone moment, with India’s women’s 4x100m relay team qualifying for the event for the first time.

And rather than being bogged down by age, she is taking inspiration from Justin Gatlin’s world-championship-winning feat at 35.

“I spent several years in Jamaica, and seeing athletes compete at the highest level well into their 30s really shaped my mindset. I still remember Justin Gatlin beating Usain Bolt at the World Championships at 35. Moments like that showed that age doesn’t have to be a barrier,” said Nanda, who trained under Steven Fransic at Kingston MVP track club in Jamaica for more than two and a half years from 2019 to 2022.

“Watching how they train, how they think, how they react to competition taught me a lot. So, I don’t feel my age is holding me back in any way. I’ve trained clean throughout my career.”

As far as her body is concerned, she believes she’s at her best these days.

“I don’t feel my body has aged. My muscles still feel young, and there’s nothing I did earlier that I can’t do now. In fact, with more experience, I now focus more on technique, nutrition and recovery,” added Nanda, who competed in her first international event back in 2007 — Ostrava IAAF World Youth Championships.

Besides taking better care of herself, she is also using this experience to make sure her teammates are well prepared to compete at the world stage.

After all, this also marks the first time India’s women’s and mixed 4x100m relay teams have mounted a serious qualification push for the World Championships through the World Relays and world-ranking route.

“They are focused, eager to learn and quick to adapt. Having competed together at the Asian Championships, Sneha, Nithya and I have good coordination, while the younger athletes, Tamanna and Sudeshna, are talented and learning fast. We work very well together in training and share a strong mindset,” she added.

To prepare the teams for the tournament, the Athletics Federation of India held a camp in Thiruvananthapuram from March until the squads left for the event last week. But Nanda has been diligently training on her own since October last year with the sole focus of making it to the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games later in the year.

Only time will tell whether she makes it or not, but for now, one can look forward to seeing her compete at the World Relays over the weekend.

That optimism stems from the fact that, despite a significant global gap, the Indian women’s 4x100m squad, Asian silver medallists with a time of 43.86s, has shown enough consistency and cohesion to remain firmly in the World Championships and LA Olympics qualification picture.


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