The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHEN the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s fourth World Relays takes up its new home in Yokohama, Japan, next month, the Bahamas will not be defending its only title won in the inaugural mixed gender 4x400 metre relay in the final event staged here in the Bahamas in 2017.

Instead, Bahamas Association of Athletic Association’s Chief Executive Officer Mabelene Miller has confirmed that the Bahamas will only be contesting the following:

Men’s 4 x 200 - Shavez Hart, Cliff Resias, Stephen Newbold, Rico Moultrie and Anthony Adderley.

Men’s 4 x 400m - Steven Gardiner (43.89), Alonzo Russell (45.53), O’Jay Ferguson (46.89), Andre Colebrook (47.27) and Teray Smith (47.53) at the May 11-12 event.

Miller noted that a conflict in scheduling will prevent the Bahamas from entering any other event, including the men’s 4x100 and women’s 4x100, but there were changes made by the entry deadline on April 22.

“Within this track and field cycle, we are mindful of using every opportunity to qualify for the World Championships. This is why it was important to contest the traditional 4x100 and 4x400 events in Tokyo,” Miller said.

“Please be advised that that entry standards were only imposed in the 4x100 and 4 x 400 events which are determined through the IAAF World Ranking list.

“After submitting our entries, unfortunately, we received news today (Wednesday) from the IAAF that the men’s and women 4x100 relay did not make the top 24. This means that The Bahamas does not have a lane in those two events.”

Miller said as a result of these changes, the BAAA had decided to withdraw the men’s 4x200 team (which does not require entry standards) as this is not an event on the World Championship schedule.

But on the insistence from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, the men’s 4x200m relay team will now be included. However, she confirmed that the Bahamas will not defend its title in the mixed relays.

“We have also been advised by both Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo’s manager that they would not be available for the mixed relay in Doha due to schedule conflicts,” she stated. “Similarly, this is the case for Devynne and Pedrya in the 100m hurdles.

In the three years the World Relays were held in the Bahamas, 2014, 2015 and 2017, the Bahamas has only won one relay and that was the mixed relay that was introduced as the grand finale in 2017. The team of Steven Gardiner, Shaunae Miller, Anthonique Strachan and Michael Mattieu pulled off the feat in 3:14.42 over the USA (3:17.29) and Jamaica (3:20.26).

As the World Relays move from the Bahamas, where it resided for three years, the IAAF will be introducing two more events to the agenda in Japan. A mixed 2x2x400m relay and mixed shuttle hurdles relay have been added to the programme of events.

Those two events will join the men’s and women’s 4 x 100m, 4x200m and 4x400m and the mixed 4x400m, bringing the total of races contested over the two days to three men’s events, three women’s events and three mixed events.

The mixed shuttle hurdles event is a completely new addition to the World Relays programme. Usually held as a single-sex race, the event in Yokohama will feature two men and two women on each team, running 110m legs.

The relay, according to the IAAF on its website, will begin with the women running their standard 100m hurdles race from the finish line towards the traditional start, but running an extra 10 metres at the end of their leg to account for the extra distance.

They will then change over to the first man on the team who will run 110m back up the straight in the adjacent lane and then change over to the second woman, and so on.

The mixed 2x2x400m, designed for middle distance specialists, requires both members of the team to run two 400m legs of a relay. As with the mixed 4x400m, each team can choose to start with a man or the woman. The athletes then take it in turns to run their two legs of the relay.

Inspired by a mixed relay event introduced to biathlon in recent years, the 2x2x400m replaces the 4x800m relay, which proved to have limited appeal at previous editions of the World Relays.

Although the first three editions were here in the Bahamas at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium in 2014, 2015 and 2017, it was originally intended to be contested as an annual event. The IAAF later decided to stage it every odd year, the same as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics for which it serves as a qualification stage.

The competition format for the first edition included the 4x100m relay, the 4x200m, 4x400m, 4x800m and the 4x1,500m. The first edition had a $1.4 million prize fund.

From the second edition, the 4 × 1500 metres relay was replaced by the distance medley relay. However, this was short-lived and was itself replaced by a mixed-gender 4×400 metres relay.

The USA have dominated the World Relays every year, carrying home the Golden Baton, the trophy awarded to the country that accumulate the most points from the events combined.