In the history of the men's 4x400m relay, there have been only 11 times an Asian country has run with a timing better than 3 minutes and 1 seconds. In that small subset, only thrice has an Asian team ever dipped below the 3-minute mark. And two of those timings happened last week in Budapest at the World Athletics Championships when the Indian team of Muhammed Anas, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh turned heads, made jaws drop and, more importantly, ran their heart out. They first qualified for the final with the Asian Record set in the heats and then finished fifth in the medal race. Fair to say, they emerged as a group of heroes after their memorable efforts on back-to-back nights.

At the risk of a little bit of generalisation, the beauty of track and field events is the outward simplicity coupled with the inherent technical nuances that could keep physicists busy for days on end. (There is a beautiful Sunday spread by Jonathan Selvaraj and team at the Hindu on the science behind Neeraj Chopra, to add to this point.) Every discipline could be described in a line rather simply (run the fastest, throw the longest etc) but it would take years to perfect it behind the scenes, and often away from the limelight. And the said limelight is often a matter of seconds, especially for track events. All the time spent on understanding and executing the minute details, and you get just minutes to execute them.

And the relay is no different. Anyone who has run a relay race in their life at any level, know just how darn hard the exchange of the baton can be. Vaibhav Manocha, who was at the venue in Budapest to see it all unfold, put it brilliantly about watching a relay (4x100 but applicable to 4x400 too I imagine): "Not missing out any action in the race has to be a sport in itself. So much happens all at once, it wrecks your brain literally."

Indeed, so much happened on that August 26 night. A good run was on the cards from the Indian quartet as they made their way out to the track. Once Anas made a strong start, that feeling grew a little stronger but if you have watched enough relays, you'd know that it is not easy to draw conclusions from the lead leg because of the stagger as well as the potential of things slowing down after the baton exchange.

Once Anas handed it over to Amoj, things started getting a little clearer as the spread of athletes converged to the inside lane. And there he was, just behind the USA.

And then it hit. Wait, what? Amoj was not just behind USA, he was keeping pace for the full lap. As Ajmal then took over, even the commentators realised something special was unfolding. Then came the fine anchor leg by Rajesh, that saw India finish with the best 4x400m ever run by an Asian team: 2:59.05 seconds.

Decathlete and high-jump specialist Tejaswin Shankar added more nuance to this epic race on Twitter in a thread, expanded here for better readability:

The 400 is not a blind sprint but a very strategic race. Strategies are useless if you can’t keep up with the faster guys. So fitness of our boys was no. 1 for me. Intent no. 2. Anas bhai ran a solid first leg by not allowing GB to close down stagger while making up on Spain.

Amoj in 2 got the baton and took off alongside the Spaniard. Second runner gets the privilege of breaking out of lanes and catch the inside line which Amoj beat the spaniard to, making it harder for him to overtake Amoj from the outside. Very crucial.

A clean change to Ajmal in 2 made sure we had the best possible spot. Ajmal bhai is the best in India fitness wise today. Anyone can run a smooth first bend and back straight but keeping a solid form into the 2nd bend and home straight separated him from the rest.

A clean change alongside the American into the final leg, but hats off to Rajesh. Perfect display of INTENT that separates runners from winners. Back straight going into the final bend is usually the best place to initiate an early charge. Where fatigue starts to kick in…

Absolutely perfectly executed attempt.

And that execution was the result of plenty of work behind the scenes.

"Before the heats, the coaches told us to go into the mentality that we can achieve our target of finishing the race with a time of 2:58. So, we entered with the same mindset and treated the Heats as a final for us, where we wanted to achieve our targets," Ajmal said in an interaction on Saturday. Rajesh added that the message from coaches was simple: just focus on your run, make sure you are in the top three, and run for history.

Rajesh, in fact, was puking after his efforts and had to be stretchered off at the end of the race beacuse of the build-up of lactic acid in his legs. But when he told Amoj before the race that he was a little nervous, the comforting words from his senior helped him carry the baton safely past the finish line. (A must-read piece by Andrew Amsan on that here.)

In the final next day, the legs were a little more tired and there were a couple of hindrances that were thrown their way too as the Indians still managed another sub-3 minute time to finish fifth. Even that day, they believe they could have run a bit quicker.

There was no medal around their necks in the end, but boy did they garner attention for their efforts especially in the heats.

"The best compliment that we received was from a member of the Netherlands contingent. After we were walking back to our dressing room, he came running to us and said, 'this is how you run with heart'. We also received praise from Jamaicans, the USA, Great Britain and a lot of other people who gave us positive remarks over our performance," Amoj, who nearly quit athletics not long back due to his injuries, said with pride evident in his voice.

While the world saw what these four were capable of during their run in Hungary, their belief had been bubbling for a while. It didn't happen in Eugene last year, but it all paid off in Budapest.

"We work really hard at training every day. We start early in the morning at 7 AM and we workout till 9 AM. After a bit of rest in the day, we return for training in the evening from 5 PM to 7 PM. Then we worked hard on baton changing. As advised by our Coach Raj Mohan, we have made slight tweaks in our techniques during the exchange of batons from the first runner to the second. That actually helped in reducing our times. It really helped the team as we are able to switch a little quicker and as a team, we are feeling more confident," Anas said.

The secret to succeeding on track, is gelling well on the outside and it was evident in how each of them had the other's back during the interaction. It helps too that they have common interests and bound as not just colleagues but friends.

"Rajesh made us watch Jailer in Budapest only, and we all really enjoyed it together. Rajinikanth Sir was awesome, and Lalettan what I can say, just fantastic. Apart from watching movies, we also play cricket, volleyball, football, and our coaches join us as well. I play badminton too. When we play cricket and volleyball especially, it becomes very competitive, it's crazy,” Amoj said. Rajesh added that the plan next was to watch Leo together.

Anas added about their team chemistry: "There is no language barrier since we understand each other, there is no senior-junior either. We talk after each training session, practice race, main race, about how it went, and we open up the tiniest of things to each other. If we have any concerns, we raise it immediately. Fixing mistakes can happen when you are friends with the people you are in the team with because there is trust between you. It is great motivation that people around me completely understand me and we all are able to communicate effectively at all times.”

Beyond Asian Games coming up where they will be favourites now, the main focus for the team is the World Athletic Relays early next year.

"Our performance at the World Championships is a big motivation for us heading into the Asian games. I feel if we can handle the pressure at the Worlds, we are good to take that kind of pressure even at the Olympics. We are eagerly awaiting the World Relays next year in Nassau in May, which will be a good chance for us to qualify for the Olympics. There is still time for us to improve even further till then and we are working on the same,” Rajesh said.

The attention, of course, means more pressure going forward.

"Everyone will be looking at us," said Amoj looking ahead to the Asian Games and the challenge of taking on Japan. The focus will be on staying fit and pushing themselves close to their best again in Hangzhou, the timing will then take care of itself.

While the medal proved a little out of their reach the next day, Anas and Ajmal and Amoj and Rajesh will always remember the night they ran the "race of their life" as commentator Rob Walker put it. Even if they go on to achieve bigger things, that night in Budapest will go down as the moment they relayed it to the world that they are a team worthy of the stage.

The interaction with the athletes on Saturday was facilitated by JSW Sports.

PS: This Andrew Amsan piece in the Indian Express is also a must-read on the relay team.