On Saturday at the Debswana World Athletics Relays hosted in Gaborone, Botswana, Jamaica’s mixed 4x400m relay team delivered a standout performance to punch their ticket to the event’s final, crossing the finish line first in their semi-final heat with a time of 3 minutes 11.68 seconds.
The quartet made up of sprinter Deandre Watkin, sprinter-hurdler Shana Kaye Anderson, rising sprint star Antonio Watson and 400m hurdler Rushell Clayton outpaced competing squads to claim the top spot in the second semi-final heat. Poland followed behind in second place with a time of 3:13.00, while Nigeria rounded out the top three with a 3:13.12 clocking.
Beyond securing a place in the upcoming World Athletics Relays final, the result also guarantees Jamaica’s spot in two upcoming elite global track and field competitions: the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship, scheduled to take place in Budapest, Hungary this coming September, and the 2027 World Athletics Championships set to be hosted in Beijing, China.
Jamaica’s semi-final run posted the ninth-fastest time across all three qualifying heats. However, under the event’s qualification rules, the first two finishing teams from each of the three heats earn an automatic spot in the final. With their first-place finish in the heat, Jamaica advanced to the next round without facing any elimination uncertainty.