With the first day of action complete at the World Athletics Relays Silesia 21, 23 teams have effectively secured their places in the relay events at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The finals will take place in Silesia tomorrow, but the completion of the first round today means places at the Olympics have been decided as all eight finalists in the women’s and men’s 4x100m and women’s, men’s and mixed 4x400m will qualify for Tokyo.
In addition, the top 10 teams in the men’s and women’s 4x100m and 4x400m, and the top 12 teams in the mixed 4x400m, have qualified for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
Tonight’s heats threw up some surprises, as well as some particularly inspired performances. The Dominican Republic, for example, only arrived in Silesia at 4am on Saturday morning, having flown into Warsaw instead of Krakow. They then had to complete Covid tests, and isolate while waiting for their results, before heading to the stadium. Despite that, their mixed 4x400m team set a national record of 3:16.67 in their heat, producing the third-fastest time of the day.
Ecuador, meanwhile, will compete in an Olympic relay event for the first time after their women’s 4x100m quartet advanced to the final in Silesia, setting a national record of 43.86.
To complete their Olympic qualification, all teams must compete with bona fide effort in tomorrow’s finals. If a team does not start in the final due to a medical reason, they must present a medical certificate from the World Athletics medical delegate in order to guarantee their qualification for the Olympic Games.
The first eight places in each relay for Tokyo were awarded to the top eight teams at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019.
In cases where those teams have also qualified in the top eight in Silesia, the remaining quota places for Tokyo (16 per event) will be allocated according to the World Athletics top performance lists as at 29 June 2021.
Meanwhile, tere was success for the host nation Poland on an action-packed first evening of competition with Joanna Jozwik and Patryk Dobek teaming up to win the 2x2x400m.
It was the first of two finals at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzow, with Germany winning the shuttle hurdles relay and a whole host of competitive 4x100m and 4x400m heats taking place.
With two athletes taking it in turns to run their two 400m legs, the 2x2x400m is an event which favours the middle-distance athletes rather than sprinters but in Dobek the host nation had a bit of both. Previously better known as a 400m hurdler, the 27-year-old has stepped up to the 800m this year in superb style, winning the European indoor title in just his fourth competition at the distance.
In Silesia he was joined by his European Indoors teammate Jozwik, who claimed 800m silver in Torun, and together they powered to victory on home soil, clocking 3:40.92.
After a conservative start, Kenya were narrowly ahead after the first lap, with Naomi Korir handing the baton to Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich and Jozwik passing on to Dobek.
Slovenia is only fielding one team in Silesia and they made their presence felt in this event, with Anita Horvat and Zan Rudolf challenging Kenya on the third and final legs. Kenya had the stronger finish, however, and it saw them secure second place in 3:41.79 as Slovenia were third in 3:41.95.
All-round stronger starts and composure under pressure helped Germany to victory in the mixed shuttle hurdles relay, the final event of the night.
Monika Zapalska began well to give Germany a slight lead on the first leg. Poland’s Zuzanna Hulisz made up a bit of ground on Zapalska towards the end of her leg, but Germany’s Erik Balnuweit got off to a swift start on the second leg, opening up another metre on Poland.
Krysztof Kiljan maintained Poland’s second-place position on the second leg as the top two teams continued to pull away from Kenya in third. The positions stayed the same on the third leg with Anne Weigold holding on to the lead for Germany as Poland’s Klaudia Wojtunik tried to give chase.
Poland saved their strongest runner, Damian Czykier, for the final leg. At first it seemed as though Gregor Traber’s lead was unassailable, but Czykier closed well in the final stages. He clattered the final barrier, though, and so was unable to catch the German before the finish.
Germany won in 56.53 with Poland taking second in 56.68. Kenya took third in 59.89.
QUALIFIED TEAMS
Women’s 4x100m
For Tokyo: Netherlands, France, Poland, Ecuador, Japan, Denmark
(joining Jamaica, Great Britain & NI, USA, Switzerland, Germany, Trinidad & Tobago, Italy, China)
Two places remain available.
For Oregon: Netherlands, France, Poland, Switzerland, Ecuador, Italy, Japan, Denmark, Spain, Ireland
Men’s 4x100m
For Tokyo: Italy, Germany, Ghana, Denmark
(joining USA, Great Britain & NI, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, China, France, Netherlands)
Four places remain available.
For Oregon: Italy, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Netherlands, Ghana, Japan, Denmark, Ukraine, France
Women’s 4x400m
For Tokyo: Cuba, Germany, Italy, France
(joining USA, Poland, Jamaica, Great Britain & NI, Belgium, Ukraine, Netherlands, Canada)
Four places remain available.
For Oregon: Cuba, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Great Britain & NI, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain
Men’s 4x400m
For Tokyo: Netherlands, Japan, South Africa, Botswana
(joining USA, Jamaica, Belgium, Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago, Italy, France, Great Britain & NI)
Four places remain available.
For Oregon: Netherlands, Japan, South Africa, Belgium, Botswana, Colombia, France, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic
Mixed 4x400m
For Tokyo: Italy, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain
(joining USA, Jamaica, Bahrain, Great Britain & NI, Poland, Belgium, India, Brazil)
Three places remain available.
For Oregon: Italy, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Belgium, Great Britain & NI, Colombia, Poland, Netherlands, Japan, Spain, South Africa
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