by Stuart Weir
This is the third column by Stuart Weir for Day one at the Oregon 22 World Champs, and it is about the Mixed Relay.
The Allyson Felix Memorial Mixed Relay
The 4 by 400 mixed relay is the newest addition to the Championship program, having been introduced in the Doha 2019 World Champs. It had previously been part of the World Relays. In the early days, there was a variation in running order with some teams either going Man, Man, Woman, Woman to try to gain a lead and hold it or vice-versa, finishing with your fastest runners. However, with every team using an M, W, M, W format in Oregon, some of the intrigue was lost.
The other issue with the event is how to fit it into the program. The 4 by 400 M and W relays are traditionally the final events – after the runners have completed the individual events. The mixed relay in Doha and Oregon was early in the program – here with prelims on the first morning and the final on the first evening.
The conundrum for the athlete with serious individual medal aspirations is are they prepared to sacrifice potential individual medal chances for the good of the team by entering the individual event with one or even two races in their legs. The Bahamas with Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the two best 400 flat runners in the world, would be awesome in the event, but their superstars are keeping themselves for the individual races, and the Bahamas were not entered.
The result was:
1 Dominican Republic 3:09.82
2 Netherlands 3:09.90
3 USA 3:10.16
Going back to an earlier point, Marileidy Paulino, an individual silver medalist in the flat 400 at the Tokyo Olympics, ran both legs and was heroic in the final. Femke Bol, a big medal hope in the 400h, ran for the Netherlands in the final on the anchor leg, bringing the team to third to 0.08 seconds from gold. The American team included at most 1 runner who would be in the men’s or women’s 4 X 400 relay final selection.
The sub-plot for the race was Allyson Felix in her last ever championship and unlikely to run in the women’s 4 by 400. She signs off with a bronze medal, but it was not a great run. She took the baton in the lead on leg 2 and opened up a commanding lead but seemed to have misjudged the pace and was overtaken by Paulino, whose leg was timed at 48.47 to Felix’s 51.50.
“It was very special to be able to run in front of a home crowd for my last race,” the 36-year-old Felix said. “It was so cool. My daughter was in the stands. It was a night I will cherish. I’ve had such good memories. I know it is time, and these guys will carry it on into the future. I am at peace stepping into this next stage and have tremendous gratitude for this sport.”
2022 World Championship Mixed Relay stats and trivia
- Dominican Republic won the mixed 4×400 in 3:09.82, the second fastest time ever, after the WR set by the USA of 3:09.34 at Doha 2019. The Dominican was the silver medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
- Netherlands took silver as Femke Bol ran down Kennedy Simon (USA) on the final straightaway. The Netherlands had been 4th at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
- The United States took bronze, the same medal they won at the Tokyo Olympics. Allyson Felix ran the 2nd leg for the USA and won her 19th World Championship medal, extending her record for the most medals at the World Championships.
- Felix also won a medal for her 8th World Championships, breaking the record she co-held with Ezekiel Kemboi (KEN) with 7.
- Felix also won World Championship medals over a span of 17 years, breaking the record of 16 held by Jésus Ángel García (ESP) in race walking (1993-2009).
