{"id":651,"date":"2014-03-12T20:21:06","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T20:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/?p=651"},"modified":"2014-03-12T20:21:06","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T20:21:06","slug":"appetite-for-iaaf-world-relays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/pre-event\/appetite-for-iaaf-world-relays","title":{"rendered":"Appetite for IAAF World Relays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/400mrelay.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-652\" title=\"400m relay\" alt=\"400m relay\" src=\"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/400mrelay.jpg\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/400mrelay.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/400mrelay-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last week\u2019s IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot ended on a high with a world indoor record* in the 4x400m, providing a glimpse as to the kind of excitement that could be in store at the inaugural IAAF World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, on 24-25 May.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The US teams won both relays at the Ergo Arena last weekend, the women setting a North American indoor record of 3:24.83 and the men setting a world indoor record of 3:02.13.<\/p>\n<p>They will be among the favourites to win in the Bahamian capital in little more than ten weeks from now, but their victories are by no means a guarantee.<\/p>\n<p>At last year\u2019s IAAF World Championships in Moscow, host nation Russia beat USA\u2019s women\u2019s team as their run of world 4x400m titles came to an end.<\/p>\n<p>At the London 2012 Olympics one year prior, the men\u2019s US 4x400m team was overhauled by The Bahamas in a memorable race. With the expected vocal support in Nassau, The Bahamas could once again triumph over the might of the USA.<\/p>\n<p>But the relays drama in recent years hasn\u2019t just been reserved for the 4x400m.<\/p>\n<p>Both 4x100m world records were broken at the London 2012 Olympics. Usain Bolt anchored Jamaica to a 36.84 clocking, while the US women ran 40.82 to smash the long-standing 41.37 that was set by East Germany in 1985.<\/p>\n<p>The IAAF World Relays will have more than just the 4x100m and 4x400m, though. Also on the programme will be the 4x200m, 4x800m and 4x1500m.<\/p>\n<p>Of the world records in existence for those events, the women\u2019s 4x800m has stood for the longest. Set by the Soviet Union in 1984, their time of 7:50.17 roughly translates to 1:57.54 per leg. The men\u2019s world record is somewhat more recent, set by Kenya in 2006 with a time of 7:02.43.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most vulnerable world records in Nassau will be the 4x1500m marks. Kenya holds the men\u2019s record at 14:36.23, while Australia owns the women\u2019s mark at 17:09.75.<\/p>\n<p>As hosts, The Bahamas has indicated they will field a full quota of 10 teams; one for each event. USA is expected to do likewise, while nations such as Kenya and Jamaica will doubtless play to their strengths in the distance events and sprints respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Whether individual teams are focused on records, qualifying times or victories, the one guarantee of relay events is that there will always be excitement. And lots of it.<\/p>\n<p>Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF<\/p>\n<p>*subject to the usual ratification procedures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week\u2019s IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot ended on a high with a world indoor record* in the 4x400m, providing a glimpse as to the kind of excitement that could be in store at the inaugural IAAF World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, on 24-25 May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,4,1,387,320],"tags":[314,28,595],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-featured","category-news","category-pre-event","category-usa","tag-314","tag-iaaf","tag-world-relays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/track\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}