The World Relays has come and gone, with a lot of “unexpected” finishes left in its wake. After watching the races and the comments made during and after the event, I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of people really don’t understand the purpose of the meet – including World Athletics! So, let’s examine it’s “purpose” and see how many fans, athletes, and governing bodies actually understand why everyone was in China.

Beginning with the 2019 World Championships, the World Relays became the qualifying meet for Worlds. The top fourteen teams at World Relays, move on to the World Championships, with two additional squads joining them based on best performance during a one year qualifying period! Previously team selection for relay teams competing at the World Championships was based solely on the best times run during the qualifying period.

Given that there are few opportunities for national squads to compete in relay competition, the use of this event as a qualification meet actually makes sense. Though it’s original intent in 2014, was to provide an annual forum for global relay competition. That said, given that it is now an official qualification meet for the World Championships, I think that the staging of the meet should be more in line with the World Championships. National qualification meets for Worlds are conducted approximately a month before the World Championships. At this time many nations also select their relay team members. I think the nations, the athletes, the fans, and the sport would be better served if the actual teams that would be competing at Worlds were able to compete in this meet. So, instead of running this meet five months before the World Championships – with a large majority of the teams changing personnel during this time span – World Athletics should hold the meet two weeks before the World Championships. Giving countries time to put their squads together to compete to get into the World Championships! This would a) make for a much more exciting qualifying meet; and b) help create excitement heading into the World Championships! Basically a fully loaded preview meet for the World Championships! The current meet does not do this at all. As a matter of fact, it will be forgotten shortly as other competitions will take place and overshadow it! The meet could be held in the same city and stadium where Worlds is held, which would give it an automatic host, as well as give the World Championships a boost. it also would be easier on athletes and federations. One location to go to instead of two, and within a set time period without disruption training and participation in other meets.

So, how did the athletes and “federations” view the meet? Some sent their best squads, in an attempt to give 100% to the qualification process. In all fairness we’re talking about the smaller countries that only have an “A” group capable of getting into Worlds. Some of the “larger” and/or stronger countries sent “B” squads with the knowledge that they were good enough to move on. In most cases both strategies worked. Although some squads met with poorer results than they had hoped for. Chief among these was Jamaica whose men did not make either the 4×1 or 4×4 for the World Championships. The Jamaican women while qualifying in the 4×1 failed to do so in the 4×4. The US while qualifying in all four events used “B” squads that performed at less than optimal levels. Causing fans of both countries to be “unhappy”. In comparison, Botswana sent their “B” team in the men’s 4×4 and they did quite well.

Speaking of fans, how was the competition from the fans perspective. It depends on which fans we’re talking about. If your team qualified for Worlds you were happy. If they didn’t you were disappointed. If they did, but didn’t do as well as expected, there was also disappointment, but for many this was always going to be the case! Why? Because as I said earlier, the timing of this meet is bad! A big reason that many countries sent “B” teams, is that many athletes were not ready to go to China and compete, because they are still in the early portion of their training cycles for their respective national championships – and hopefully the World Championships! This is why many global stars were missing from this meet! Such as Noah Lyles, Femke Bol, Sha’Carri Richardson, Lieke Klaver, Rai Benjamin, Ewa Swoboda, Lamont Jacobs, Dina Asher Smith, and Letsile Tebogo to name just a few. Not the best look for a sport attempting to improve its image.

Now, relays are exciting regardless of who is on the track at this level, however it does diminish the overall product when the best are not there. In this case the fans and the sport would have been better served with an August rendition of this competition, because what we all saw in China was not a true representation of what we will see in September! Entertaining, yes. Qualification for Worlds, technically. Everyone’s best, no.

That said, kudos to the federations that were able to put together squads that moved on to Tokyo! For many this was a true challenge. The US actually had athletes on the track that will not even be in semifinals of events at nationals in August. More an illustration of depth, than of poor selection, which many fans were complaining about during the meet. Upset that our best teams were not in China. That only shows the frustration of fans and their disappointment at not watching the best on the track.

As I’ve said many times before, this is one of the biggest problems with track and field – not getting out best athletes on the track competing when we need to. We don’t have to “change” how the events are conducted. Mixed relays don’t create more excitement. Why would events that are slower than the traditional races be more exciting? The answer is that they’re not. What IS more exciting is having faster athletes on the track! Placing this meet between national championships and the World Championships would do that. World Athletics needs to do a better job of understanding the assignment.