WUG2025: Ankita Dhyani, sprint relay team help India finish with dozen medals

Ankita Dhyani ran a smart race to win the women’s 3000m Steeplechase silver medal and the Indian men’s 4x100m relay quartet, fuelled by a blitz on the back straight by Animesh Kujur, claimed a delightful bronze medal to bring the curtain down on India’s campaign in the FISU World University Games 2025 in Germany on a happy note. 

A bronze for the women’s Race Walk team came as welcome bonus on the final day. Thus, the athletics team finished its campaign with three silver and two bronze medals for a total of five. It also helped the Indian contingent end its Rhine-Rhur 2025 journey with a tally of 12 medals, including two gold, five silver and five bronze. 

Overtaking Germany’s Adla Budde to be third at the bell and a full three seconds behind Ruken Tek (Turkiye), Ankita Dhyani continued to increase her pace and bridge the gap. She closed it and went past the Turkish runner with about 200m left. The Indian made a gallant attempt by giving it everything she had on the home stretch. Only a stride separated her from the winner.

Ankita was rewarded with a new personal best time, having shaved off 7.01 seconds from her previous best clocked in Des Moines, Iowa, on April 25 this year. For someone who has run just seven races since making her debut in the event on September 29 last, she has fast emerged as the fourth best Indian in the event behind Parul Chaudhary, Lalita Babar and Sudha Singh.

India’s men’s 4x100m relay squad improved its performance from 39.21 seconds in the heats to 38.89 seconds for the third fastest time clocked by an Indian quartet. It was good to get it the bronze medal ahead of Australia. Both teams were credited with the same time, 38.89 but a photo finish camera awarded India the bronze by 0.005 seconds.

After a smooth baton exchange with the lead runner Lalu Prasad Bhoi, Animesh Kujur powered down the back straight to lift India from fifth to hand the baton to Manikanta Hoblidhar in the third place. Indian remained ahead of Australia, but Dondapati Mrutyam Jayaram had to be at his best to keep Aidan Murphy at bay till the beam. He did not let his team down.

The women’s 4x100m relay team replaced Angel Silva with Ancy Sojan whose last known 100m run was on September 28, 2021. It also moved Abinaya Rajajaran to the back straight and let Ancy Sojan take over the baton in the anchor leg from Sudeeksha Vadluri. The move was fraught with risk, but with nothing to lose, the coaches were willing to take that.

The women’s Race Walking team picked up a bonus bronze for India, finishing behind China and Australia in what was a three-team race. None of the Indian Race Walkers was in with a chance of winning a medal in either the men’s or women’s events. The men’s team cumulative effort saw it finish in the sixth place.

India was placed 20th, a drop from the 7th place finish in the last edition of the World University Games in Chengdu. Of course, without shooting in the Rhine-Rhur 2025 schedule, it was always going to be difficult to match that 26-medal haul. Even then, India will have much soul searching to do after no medals in 10 of the 14 disciplines it competed in.

The results (Indians only):

Men

3000m Steeplechase Final: 2. Ankita Dhyani 9:31.99.
4x100m Relay Final: 3. India (Lalu Prasad Bhoi, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar, Mrutyan Jayaram Dondapati) 38.89 seconds.
4x400m Relay Final: 5. India (TK Vishal, Lakshmanan Aswin Krishnan, Jerome Jayaseelan, Balakrishna) 3:06.56. 
Pole Vault Final: 5. Dev Kumar Meena 5.35m
20km Race Walk Final: 20. Rahul 1:26:34.00; 25: Gaurav Kumar 1:28:44.00; 28. Sachin Singh Bohra 1:32:03.00; 31. Sanjay Kumar 1:46:21.00. Team: 6. India.

Women

4x100m Relay Final:  7. India (Moumita Monda, Abinaya Rajarajan, Sudeeksha Vadluri, Ancy Sojan) 45.06.
4x400m Relay Final: 6. India (Anakha Anila, Devyaniba Zala,, Rashdeep Kaur, Rupal Chaudhary) 3:35.08.
20km Race Walk Final: 15. Sejal Anil Singh 1:35:21.00; 18, Munita Prajapati 1:39:33.00; 20. Mansi Negi 1:41:12.00; 23. Shalini 1:48:07.00; 25. Mahima Choudhary 1:55:49.00. Team: 3. India.

Rowing

Men’s Pair Final C: 5. India (Ankit and Vishal) 77:41.54. Ranked: 17.

Men’s Double Sculls Final D: 3. India (Harvinder Singh Cheema and Bhupinder Singh) 7:23.03. Ranked: 21.

Women’s Single Scull Final E: 1. Dhanshree Bhaskar Sangle 9:56.91. Ranked. 25.

Women’s Four Final B: 6. India (Pooja, Jashanpreet Kaur, Avinash Kaur, Anuprit Kaur) 8:02.85. Ranked 12.
Mixed Quadruple Sculls Final B: 3. India (Rushikesh Shelke, Diksha, Rohit Bedwal, Pavitra) 7:03.81. Ranked: 9.