The Jamaican quartet of Ackeem Blake, Tina Clayton, Kadrian Goldson and Tia Clayton stormed to a mixed 4x100m world record* in the very first event of the Debswana World Athletics Relays Gaborone 26 on Saturday.
The competition started in sensational style as Jamaica’s 39.99 in the third of the three mixed 4x100m heats beat the world record of 40.07 set by Canada in heat one. That had improved on the world best of 40.30 achieved by Canada when the mixed 4x100m made its global debut at last year’s World Relays in Guangzhou.
Using the new running order of man, woman, man, woman, Blake handed the baton to Tina Clayton, who then passed it on to Goldson before Tia Clayton ran away unchallenged to break 40 seconds in this event for the first time.
Great Britain & NI finished second in that heat in 40.72.
Eliezer Adjibi, Marie-Éloise Leclair, Duan Asemota and Audrey Leduc formed the Canadian team that ran 40.07, Leduc running a storming anchor leg to hold off Germany (40.15), Netherlands (40.20) and Nigeria (40.24), who all also dipped under the previous world best.
Those four teams all also qualified for the final on Sunday (3) and automatically qualified for the World Athletics Championships Beijing 27 – with the top two teams in each of the three heats and the next two quickest securing their spots. On Sunday, teams will also race for places for the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September – the top six teams in the final will book those places.
USA won the second mixed 4x100m heat in 40.36 ahead of Spain (40.51).
*Subject to the usual ratification procedure
