by Stuart Weir
GB athletes compete in the rain in Guangzhou
Having won medals in all 5 relays at the Paris Olympics, Team GB might have expected to be confident of similar success and gaining qualification slots in the relays at the 2025 World Championships. Team GB contested all 5 championship relays plus the new 4x100m event. What made predictions difficult was the absence of star athletes like Matt Hudson-Smith, Dina Asher-Smith, Darryl Neita, Jeremiah Azu and Amber Anning.
The team’s results were
Mixed 4X400 Heat winners 3:13.28, sixth overall – qualified for World Champs
Women’s 4X400 Third in heat, 3:27.47, seventh overall – not qualified
Men’s 4X400 Second in heat, 3:01.38, seventh overall – qualified for World Champs
Women’s 4X100 Second in heat, 42.92, fifth overall – qualified for World Champs
Men’s 4X100 Heat winners, 38.18, sixth overall – qualified for World Champs
In the Mixed 4X100 the team was second in their heat, timed at 41.05, and third overall. This event will be in the 2028 Olympics but not the 2025 World Championships. This was an excellent performance by a young and relatively inexperienced team, which navigated the boy-girl handover without difficulty – unlike 4 teams which did not!
Rain poured down for much of the first day of competition but as one of the GB athletes said, they are used to rain! The GB team in the 4x400m mixed relay team was a mixture of youth and experience with 19-year-old debutant Sam Lunt handing the baton to experienced relay runner Nicole Yeargin. Sam Lunt shared that his Grandad had told me “ Sam run for your life!” and he did!
The most experienced team was in the women’s 4x100m with Asha Philip, Bianca Williams and Desiree Henry, who had, I understand, run in the first ever World Relays being joined Amy Hunt. Hunt was running her sixth race in China this year (three at World Indoors, two Diamond Leagues and World Relays). Bianca Williams said afterwards: “It was good, we came out to get the automatic qualification. That’s what we did. We got the job done, so we just need to get ready for tomorrow’s final.” It was doubly good for Bianca as her partner, Ricardo Dos Santos, brought Portugal home to qualify for the men’s 4X400 final.
The men’s 4X100 were heat winners with Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (a 2017 World champion at the event) being joined by three less experienced athletes including the self-styled “fastest accountant in the world”, Eugene Amo-Dadzie. Jona Efoloko shared how the team have been working hard on the handovers; “We have been in Hong Kong for training camp and at the training camp the three sessions we had were immaculate. I had all trust and faith in these guys, Nethaneel kept saying we are the best drilled team and I think we proved it out there and there is more to come tomorrow.”
The disappointment of the day was the failure of the women’s 4x400m to qualify for the final, coming third in their heat – two automatic qualifiers – and not fast enough to qualify on time. It was especially disappointing as it was an experienced team of Victoria Ohuruogu, Hannah Kelly and Nielsen twins, Lina and Laviai. All is not lost as the team will compete in the repechage, with the aim of finishing in the top three to secure qualification.
Laviai reflected on the race; “It was tough out there. We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy one for us. We each had a role. We spoke to our team coach about what to do and tried to execute that as best as we could. It wasn’t quite enough for the auto qualification.”
Rounding off the first day of action, the men’s 4x400m relay team finished a close second to secure their qualification spot for the World Championships.
