It’s that time of the year when everyone is sweating it hard to prepare and win the relay races. Some of the most popular relay races are IAAF world relays, Penn Relay Carnival, Reebok Ragnar Relay, BMI Saxon Clinic Marathon Relay, Nebraska’s Market to Market Relay and more.
How is a relay running race different from marathon race?
While there are global marathons such as the African Championships, Cape Wrath Challenge, Comrades Marathon, Marathon of the Midnight Sun, and other, the joy of participating in a relay is different.
Relay running races are track and field events where athletes have to carry a baton and run for a pre-set distance. After finishing the distance, they have to pass the baton to another athlete who will carry it forward. The passing of baton ends with the last athlete who runs to make it to the finish line.
From fun relay races to serious international level events, relays are popular. The standard relay races consist of two formats, a 4×400 meter relay and a 4×100 meter relay. There are cycle relay race events happening too.
Here are some insights into the International relay events:
IAAF relay events
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) conducts a series of world championships events around the year. Gaining popularity is their international relay races. The third event of the biennial IAAF world relays 2017 took place on 22-23 April 2017 in the Nassau, Bahamas. 509 athletes from 35 countries took place in the event.
United States, Jamaica, and Australia made it to the top 3 by winning the highest number of medals in the race.
Olympics Relays
One of the much awaited international events is the Olympic Games. Relay races are one of the major events in the Olympics. In the Rio Olympics held in 2016, United States won the gold, followed by Jamaica with a silver, and Great Britain with a Bronze. The US won a gold in the Women’s 4x100m relay while Jamaica took away the gold in the women’s 4x100m relay.
Although Great Britain won a bronze for the relay in the Olympics, they did not make it even into the top 10 at the 2017 Bahamas games. Poland was the leading European nation with a 4th position in the IAAF World Relays 2017 rankings.
Teams in action
Winning races is all about timing. In the 2017 IAAF relays, LaShawn Merritt got a surprise lead over Michael Mathieu to win the relay for the US by 0.34 seconds. USA and Jamaica were head to head in the competition. They have the best sprinters in the world.
USA won medals in the London Olympics but lost in the IAAF Moscow games. Jamaica buckled up and gave them a tough fight and went on to win the IAAF relay event in 2015. Again at the Beijing Olympics, USA won gold. In 2015, Jamaica went on to win the world champion title. And this year, United States gained 60 points to proudly win the maximum gold medals at the Bahamas event.
Jamaica’s leading player is Usain Bolt. In spite of his absence in the Bahamas games, Jamaica displayed a stellar performance. There were expectations from team Nigeria with a quartet of Omolara Omotosho, Regina George, Patience Okon-George, and Sade Abugan. The Nigerian team had displayed wonderful performances at the Beijing Olympics and 2014 IAAF relay. They had won a bronze in World Relays 2014 event. But unfortunately couldn’t beat the other performers.
Kenya had sent two of their best athletes for the Bahamas event. Kipyegon Bett, the World U20 champion and Ferguson Rotich, the IAAF Diamond League winner in 2016 were part of Kenya’s team. They tried hard and did not disappoint. Along with, Alfred Kipketer and Timothy Kitum, Kipyegon and Ferguson won the silver in the 4×800 meter relay.
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There are twists and turns in the relay games. The excitement builds up when they are about to pass the baton.
There have been remarkable twists in the games when the athlete leading the game drops the baton. In such situations, another athlete gets the advantage of moving ahead and this can mean losing the game to another nation in these world relays.
The athletes have to follow the game rules. They can be disqualified if they drop the baton, improperly overtake another runner, prevent another runner to move ahead and so on.
Other than running, there are several team-driven sports such as skiing, swimming, skating, and more which are played as relay events.
Some of the upcoming relays to look for are:
· Revolve 24 endurance cycling relay, 13-14 January 2018, Australia
· Reebok Ragner Relays, June, August, September, November 2017 – USA, September – Europe
