Jamaica left no doubt about the depth in their sprint pool on Saturday night, lowering the mixed 4x100m world record twice in the space of 24 hours and stopping the clock at 39.62 seconds in the final at the Debswana World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, Botswana.
The quartet of Ackeem Blake, Tina Clayton, Kadrian Goldson and Tia Clayton had already shaved the existing mark to 39.99 in their heat on Friday — the first time the event had been run inside 40 seconds. Twenty-four hours later, with their slot in the final already secured, they sliced another 0.37 from the standard, beating Canada into silver in 40.23 and an out-of-sorts United States team into bronze with 40.33.
Tina Clayton, who ran the second leg in the final, said the team had not chased the record itself.
"The world record was not in our minds because our main aim was to qualify for the Ultimate Championship and get the baton around, though two world records in one event feels great," Clayton said.
The result wiped out the previous benchmark of 40.30 set by Canada in 2025. Canada's response in Gaborone was a national record of 40.07 in the heats, before Jamaica produced their second sub-40 run in the final.
Germany finished fourth in 40.52, Spain were fifth in 41.05 and Nigeria sixth in 42.03. Great Britain & Northern Ireland and the Netherlands both failed to finish after botched changeovers.
The mixed 4x100m, an event still working its way into the international relay calendar, has been a Caribbean playground from the moment it was added to the World Relays programme. With Tia Clayton — Tina's sister — coming home on the anchor leg in the final, Jamaica became the first country to dip beneath the 40-second barrier and the first to do so twice in the same meeting.
The performance also booked Jamaica's place at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest later this year, an event that carries a record prize pool for an athletics meet. The top six in each event in Gaborone qualify directly.
Saturday's final headlined a meeting that delivered four other competition records and confirmed lane-by-lane qualification for the Beijing 2027 World Championships. For Jamaica, who arrived in Botswana without Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce or Shericka Jackson on the relay roster, the message back to Kingston was unambiguous: even the next generation can take their sprint relays into territory the rest of the world cannot reach.
