Reporting on the 2019 edition of the World Relays I was pointing out that they were not as good as expected. Unfortunately the same is true about the 2021 event. However, after a year with very few competitions, even a so-so one is something one can enjoy.
The main problem of the World Relays is not only that some countries are not sending their best teams, but that some are not participating at all. This was the case this year with the total absence of US teams. Add to this the fact that Jamaica and Canada did withdraw at the last moment and you can see why I consider this year's competition an, at best, mediocre one.
World Athletics is trying to promote World Relays making the competition a qualifying for the World Championships and the Olympics. The first 8 teams of the previous (Doha 2019) World Championships are automatically qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. The remaining 8 places are given to the finalists of the World Relays. (And if there is some overlap between the two lists, then the places go to teams which are best ranked at the end of the qualification period). For the 2022 World championships the World Relays act as sole qualifying competition with the best 10 teams (and 12 in the mixed 4x400 m) getting a ticket for Eugene.
The first day had only two finals, the 2x2x400 m relay and the shuttle. The 2x2x400 m is an exciting race. The athletes must pace themselves in a most accurate way, since they must run two very demanding 400 m with just a minute of rest. The team of Poland with Jozwik and Dobek dominated the event. For Dobek, who is a low-hurdles specialist, this is a world title after his indoor european one over 800 m. Does this signal a beginning of a new career?
The mixed shuttle is a joke. If there is one event that should never be run by a mixed team that's the shuttle hurdle relay. This year there were even fewer teams than in 2019, just three, and the presence of Kenya in an essentially sprint event is, well, surprising. It is high time for World Athletics to abandon this un-natural event and either have shuttle relays separately for each sex or imagine something else. How about a 2x2x400 m hurdle (if having a mixed relay is a priority) or 4x400 m hurdles. In my article on hurdle relays I explained how this can be done in practice.
Cuba won the women's 4x400 m relay having already dominated the heats. I was somewhat disappointed by the 4th place of Netherland, who had won the european indoor championships head and shoulders. (F. Bol ran the two best splits in both the heats, 49.81, and the final, 50.58, but that did not suffice). At least the men's team from Holland managed to bring the gold medal home in the same race.
If there was one team who was the uncontested favourite, that was the women's dutch team of 4x100 m. And still they managed to lose in the final. Just look at the advance they have at the last baton hand-over. Unfortunately Sedney who was anchoring the relay started too early and Visser could not catch her. So the gold medal went to Italy and the dutch team had to content themselves with the bronze medal.
The men's 4x100 race was a massacre. Only four teams were classified in the final, the victory going to South Africa (who did indeed beat Brazil on the finish line). The Italian team who was the favourite, having finished 4th (thanks to two very bad relay exchanges) obtained a medal thanks to the disqualifications.
It goes without saying that the rarely run (and not qualifying) events, like the 4x200 m relay, do not attract many participants. But they are nice races, and quite different technically from the classical distances. Ecuador obtained its first medal in a major championship finishing 3rd in the women's 4x200 m (and also, with the same team of four, qualified for the 4x100 m for both Tokyo and Eugene). Quite justifiably the next day El Comercio saluted this success titling "Histórica medalla de bronce para Ecuador en 4x200 en el Mundial de Relevos".
The mixed 4x400 m was a beauty. Apart from France who ran w-w-m-m in the heats, all teams now run in what I consider optimal m-w-w-m. Should World Athletics regulate this and fix the order to athletes? Perhaps. Be that as it may, Italia won the heats and the final, where I did appreciate a superb second leg by Trevisan. Dominican Republic obtained the bronze medal in a race where most teams registered best times in the series compared to the final. (The explanation should be sought in the fact that the weather was freezing cold over the whole week-end).
The next World Relays will be held in 2023 and the venue will be decided this summer.
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