IAAF WORLD RELAYS BACK WITH TWO NEW DISCIPLINES ON CARDS
The fourth edition of the IAAF World Relays will be underway tomorrow (11th) in Yokohama,Japan with two brand new relay disciplines in the schedule.
Unfortunate Sri Lanka team was withdrawn early by the AASL from the world relays due to unavailability of top runners due to doping bans and injuries.
Nevertheless participation as well as interest towards world relay increased With the world governing body of athletics, IAAF deciding that top ten finishers of world relays will get the automatic entry in the this year’s IAAF World Championship where even India, who did not participate in any of the three editions prior to this year’s world relays has featured three relay teams for the event.
The 4x400m mix relay which was introduced for the world stage from the IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas became a huge success as the several continental championships including Asian Games adopted the event while it has been also included in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Following a successful experiment the world relays is set to introduce two brand new relays in shuttle hurdle mix relay and 2x2x400m mix relay event.
The shuttle relay will run in straight lines where a team will include two men and two women who will run 100m hurdles lap each to the opposite direction which has been featured in several domestic championships including the USA prior to introduction into the world stage.
The 2x2x400m will be a brand new concept which categorized as endurance relay where an athlete will have to run two 400m laps. A team will include 2 athletes (Men and women) where they both have to run two 400m laps each. Accordingly, if the female athlete takes the start she will run 400m and pass the baton into the male athlete and can rest until male athlete complete in 400m and pass the baton again in the female athlete who will again have to run the 400m lap and pass it on to the male athlete.
The World relays were first hosted by the Bahamas in 2014, it was later decided to host it in every odd year just as IAAF World Championship where Bahamas continue to host two more editions in 2015 and 2017 before they informed IAAF that they are not willing to host another edition where Japan step up.
Last time top eight teams of world relays were an automatic choice for the world championship which has been now increased to ten. The world relay which was started in 2014 with no guarantee about its future development to be one of the top and attractive global athletics event in the calendar while athletes too enjoyed it more than a traditional world championship. Also, World relays introduce the concept of awarding medal immediately for athletes following their event than scheduling it for a later time.
The USA has won24 medals in three editions including 17 gold medals while Jamaica is in second place with 5 gold medals. Kenya has won three gold medal, curtsey of middle distance relays which was featured in the first two editions.Nevertheless, only four more countries as won gold medals in all three editions with Host Bahamas, Germany, Nigeria, and Canada winning a gold medal each while none of the other countries able to win a Gold medal so far.
This year’s edition in Japanese city will feature many top-notch international athletics including likes of defending world 100m Champion Justin Gatlin while last-minute controversial withdraw of Yohan Blake had increased discussion about world relays as Blake had withdrawn him-self after Jamaica authorities did not enter him for both 4x100m and 4x200m. Japanese supporters will look up for their 4x100m relay team who have excelled in world level winning Olympic and world championship medals curtsey of their super-fast baton exchanges.
Schedule
Day 01 – 11/05 (IST/ SL time)
03.08pm – Mixed shuttle hurdles relay heats
03.35pm – Women’s 4x400m heats
04.10pm – Men’s 4x400m heats
04.43pm – Women’s 4x100m heats
05.10pm- Mixed 2x2x400m final
5.30pm – Men’s 4x100m heats
5.52pm- Mixed 4x400m heats
6.35 pm – Mixed shuttle hurdles relay final
Day 02 – 12/05 (IST/ SL time)
02.10 pm- Women’s 4x200m heats
03.01 pm – Men’s 4x200m heats
03.22 pm- Women’s 4x400m B final
03.35pm Men’s 4x400m B final
03.51pm Women’s 4x400m final
04.07pm Men’s 4x400m final
04.23pm Mixed 4x400m final
04.39pm Women’s 4x200m final
04.53pm Men’s 4x200m final
05.07pm Women’s 4x100m final
05.22pm Men’s 4x100m final
