The Novuna Great Britain & Northern Ireland mixed 4x400m relay team earned bronze and a spot at the World Ultimate Championships on the final day of World Relays action in Botswana. A total of five relay teams qualified a spot at the 2027 World Athletics Championships in Beijing.
Yemi Mary John (Woodford Green Essex Ladies, Alan James) celebrated her birthday with a storming anchor leg to reel in Kenya and push onto the podium after strong work from Alex Haydock-Wilson (Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow, Dai Greene) on the opening leg to Lina Nielsen (Shaftesbury Barnet, Jack Green), with debutant Jake Minshull (Coventry, James Wright).
John took the baton in fifth but fought her way past Italy’s Eloisa Coiro before eventually pipping Kenya’s Mercy Adongo Oketch on the line to clinch a medal with the fastest female leg of the race 49.14.
“I was given the baton, and I knew I could fight for it. I just went for it,” said John. “In that last 100, the finish was what I know I am good at and just had to fight through.”
Elsewhere, the women’s 4x400m team narrowly missed out on a medal as they finished fourth in their final.
Cheered on by the 4×100 men on the finish line, senior debutant Charlotte Henrich (Invicta East Kent, Nigel Stickings) pushed hard on the final leg but could not catch Canada before the line, as the quartet of Henrich, Laviai Nielsen (Enfield & Haringey), Nicole Yeargin (Pitreavie, Gregory Scholars) and Poppy Malik (Harrow, Nick Dakin) finished in 3:22.77, 0.11 seconds off the podium.
“It was a battle in the race,” said Nielsen. “I’m so proud of this whole squad. “We came together as a group of eight, even though there are four of us running out there. I couldn’t be more pleased with that result.”
The men’s 4x100m squad of Jeremiah Azu (Cardiff, Helen James), Zharnel Hughes (Shaftesbury Barnet, Glen Mills), Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (Newham and Essex Beagles, Michael Afilaka) and Romell Glave (Croydon Harriers, Michael Afilaka) were unchanged from the previous day, where they sealed qualification for the 2027 World Athletics Championships, however the quartet were unable to get the baton round safely in the final.
“It’s a tough one to take,” said Azu. “We put a lot of work into coming out here and performing. The nation put its trust in us, and we have just fallen short of that. We take responsibility as a team. If we win together, we lose together, so it’s not a mistake on one person.”
“We will go back and see what we could have done better, see how slick the first changeover was, so at least we will get some data from that. I think we were in the lead, to be honest but that’s relays. There are so many variables, and if there’s a slight bit of doubt or any uncertainty, it gets exposed. It just shows up. It’s fine margins.”
“We’ve got a home Europeans which is going to be huge to run in front of the UK fans. It’s not something we take lightly and such an honour, and I can’t wait. I think it’s like 100 days to go – it is going be amazing. “
The same fate befell the mixed 4x100m team of senior international debutant, Elliot Jones (Leon Baptiste) on the opening leg to Alyson Bell (Glasgow Jaguars, Anne Scott), Jeriel Quainoo (Blackheath and Bromley, Linford Christie) and Desiree Henry (Enfield & Haringey, Steve Fudge), with Quainoo taking a fall and unable to hand off to Henry on the anchor leg.
Earlier, the women’s 4x100m team bounced back from their disqualification on the first day to qualify for the 2027 World Athletics Championships.
The team of Renee Regis (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, Darren Braithwaite), who made her senior international debut handing the baton over to Aleeya Sibbons (Newham & Essex Beagles, Colin Bovell), Nia Wedderburn-Goodison (Harrow) and Success Eduan (Sale Harriers Manchester, Anita Richardson) finished in 42.90s to finish second in their repechage heat.
Eduan produced a brilliant final leg to clinch second ahead of Switzerland, and finish just 0.02 seconds behind Australia.
“To be honest, I thought we were fighting for third because I thought someone went past me,” said Eduan.“I just needed to keep in contention and beat the girl next to me. We were disappointed yesterday, but we knew that we could come back here and actually execute what we had to do. It was just great vibes, and that’s what we needed today.”
The afternoon opened with the men’s 4x400m repechage, which saw Lewis Davey (Newham & Essex Beagles, Trevor Painter), Toby Harries (Brighton Phoenix, David Sadkin), Lee Thompson (Sheffield & Dearne, John Henson) and Seamus Derbyshire (City of Stoke, Alex O’Gorman) combine for a season’s best time of 3:01.13.
However, it was only enough for third and did not earn automatic qualification for the World Athletics Championships. Further qualification places, based on time, are still available.
“It’s tough,” said team captain Thompson. “Obviously, the aim was to qualify all teams for Beijing. Now we’ve got to go and do it as one of the four fastest ones, non-automatic.
“It’s a really good squad. We threw everything at today. We trusted each other and the way we pull together is incredible. It’s just one of those things; we’ve just got to get it done later in the year.”