Sprinters descend on The Bahamas for 2 days of competitors the place Olympic qualification is at stake
Greater than 800 athletes from 52 nations have descended on Nassau in The Bahamas for this weekend’s World Athletics Relays with Olympic choice at stake. “From paradise to Paris,” the organisers have dubbed it.
Talking on the pre-event press convention and in temperatures near 30C, World Athletics president Seb Coe says the idea of the occasion was mentioned at his first council assembly with the worldwide governing physique in 2003. It took, he says, greater than a decade to get the primary occasion over the road in 2014.
Nassau held the primary three editions from 2014-2017 earlier than it moved to Japan and Poland adopted by a return to Nassau this weekend. The Bahamas capital makes no secret of the very fact it want to be the everlasting house of the assembly too.
From an early season enjoyable occasion within the sunshine, it has grown into one thing with extra objective given the Paris 2024 choice issue.
“That is Olympic 12 months and we’ve injected some jeopardy as there may be Olympic choice at stake,” says Coe. “The place the groups end will decide the lane attracts in Paris, too, so there’s a lot to play for right here.”
Coe in fact has run just a few relays in his time, too. He competed in quite a few 4x400m races throughout his profession and was a part of a world record-breaking 4x800m quartet with Steve Cram, Peter Elliott and Garry Prepare dinner in 1982.
World Relays (Dan Vernon)
At this 2024 occasion Noah Lyles and Gabby Thomas lead the US’ 4x100m groups as they purpose to defend their males’s and ladies’s international relay titles from final 12 months.
Femke Bol will type a part of the Netherlands’ 4x400m girls’s quartet hoping to retain their international title from Budapest.
Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs, who featured on Italy’s profitable groups on the Tokyo Olympics and on the 2021 World Relays, can be entered for the 4x100m and was spoke on the pre-event press convention about his hopes for the season together with Lyles and others.
UK Athletics has introduced a giant squad to The Bahamas and so they say their purpose on the occasion is to qualify all relay groups for the Paris Olympics. This follows the World Championships in Budapest the place Britain received medals in 4 out of 5 relays.
GB staff
Girls’s 4x100m: Alyson Bell, Amy Hunt, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Asha Philip, Aleeya Sibbons, Annie Tagoe, Bianca Williams (Kristal Ama-Awuah has withdrawn)
Males’s 4x100m: Eugene Amo-Dadzie, Jona Efoloko, Romell Glave, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Reece Prescod, Chijindu Ujah.
Girls’s 4x400m: Hannah Kelly, Victoria Ohuruogu, Emily Newnham, Lina Nielsen, Laviai Nielsen, Ama Pipi, Nicole Yeargin, Jodie Williams.
Males’s 4x400m: Joe Brier, Lewis Davey, Charlie Dobson, Toby Harries, Alex Haydock-Wilson, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Lee Thompson, Brodie Younger.
Blended 4x400m: Athletes chosen from 4x400m squads.
Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (Mark Shearman)
BBC protection for UK viewers
Saturday Could 4-5
23:55-03:30 – dwell protection on BBC Purple Button, Sport web site and app (repeat on Could 5, 08:10-11:45)
00:05 – 4x400m combined – heats
00:50: – girls’s 4x100m – heats
01:25-men’s 4x100m – heats
02:05-women’s 4x400m – heats
02:49-men’s 4x400m – heats
Sunday Could 5-6
23:55-03:30 – dwell protection on BBC Purple Button, BBC Sport web site and app (repeat on Could 6, 13:00-16:35)
00:05-02:04 – repechages for all occasions
02:40 – combined 4x400m– ultimate
02:50 – girls’s 4x100m – ultimate
03:00 – males’s 4x100m – ultimate
03:10 – girls’s 4x400m – ultimate
03:20 – males’s 4x400m – ultimate
» Subscribe to AW journal right here