Canada runs to mixed relay gold, men’s bronze in World Relays

The squad of Sade McCreath, Marie-Éloise LeClair, Duan Asemota, and Eliezer Adjibi have claimed the first gold medal in the mixed 4x100m relay at the World Athletics Relays.

Racing to a season-best 40.30 seconds, Canada narrowly beat out Jamaica, as the anchor Adjibi held off a trailing Bryan Levell in the final metres to put a gold medal finish on a flawless race on Sunday in Guangzhou, China.

Canada finished with a time of 40.90 to claim top spot in the third heat on Saturday, racing with Gabrielle Cole, and Jacqueline Madogo instead of McCearth and LeClair.

The foursome won’t be competing at the athletics worlds in Tokyo in September as the event will not be contested. However it was added recently to the Olympic program for Los Angeles 2028, and Canada will surely be in the conversation for gold medal if it can keep its current form.

The United States were favourites in the event, but failed to qualify for the final after fumbling a baton exchange in the heats.

In the anticipated to follow-up to the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Canada’s 4x100m men’s team took bronze behind South Africa and the United States.

A botched handoff between Aaron Brown and Jerome Blake put Canada in an early hole, but Andre De Grasse ran spectacularly around the bend to pass Japan and Italy for bronze.

South Africa’s Akani Simbine was able to move ahead of American Brandon Hicklin in the final metres to cross the finish line in first place.

The golden quartet improved just slightly from a time of 38.15 in the qualifying heats, and finished with a time of 38.11 seconds in the final. Their placement in the opening heat gave them an automatic berth at the World Championships in September.

In the women’s 4x100m, Audrey Leduc, Madogo, McCreath and Leclair set a national record with a time of 42.46 seconds, and finished in fifth place overall.

They also qualified for the Tokyo championships after finishing second in their heats on Saturday.

Canada’s 4x400m mixed team of Austin Cole, Lauren Gale, Nathan George and Zoe Sherar also qualified for worlds after taking nearly 10 seconds off their season best from Saturday.

They finished with a time of three minutes, 12.95 seconds on Sunday in the second round of the qualifying heats.

Lastly, the team of Gale, Jasneet Nijjar, Zoe Sherar, and Madeline Price clinched a World Championship berth with a season-best time of 3:27.28 in the qualifiers. They finished in seventh place in Sunday’s final.