Jamaica capped a remarkable two days at the Botswana National Stadium with a world record in the mixed 4x100m on Sunday night, the quartet of Ackeem Blake, Tina Clayton, Kadrian Goldson and Tia Clayton handing the baton through to a stadium-shaking 39.62. It was the second world record of the World Athletics Relays inside 24 hours and immediately shifted the mixed event onto a new performance plane, undercutting the previous mark by some distance and sealing Jamaica's place at the top of the championship medal table.
The mixed 4x400m, contested earlier in the evening, ended with the United States ahead in 3:07.47, with Jamaica taking silver in a national record 3:08.24 and Great Britain holding off a fast-finishing Belgium for bronze in 3:09.84. The British team, who had qualified safely from the Saturday heats, ran arguably their cleanest baton exchanges of the championship cycle, and the result keeps them inside the top three for next year's World Championships in Tokyo provided their relay programme stays intact.
The men's 4x400m belonged to the host nation. Botswana, anchored by Letsile Tebogo, took the championship title in a championship-record 2:54.47, with South Africa second in 2:55.07 and Australia, building steadily through the indoor and early outdoor season, third in 2:55.20. Tebogo crossed the finish line into a wave of red and yellow that seemed to encompass every grandstand in the stadium, the world champion's anchor leg producing a 43-second split that put the result beyond doubt halfway up the home straight.
The women's individual relays were equally rewarding for the headline acts. Jamaica's women's 4x100m team — Briana Williams, Jodean Williams, Lavanya Williams and Elaine Thompson-Herah on anchor — clocked 42.00 to take the title, marking Thompson-Herah's first world-stage gold since her return from injury. Norway's women's 4x400m team produced one of the surprises of the meeting, winning a tight final from Britain and France with a balanced four-leg split rather than a single closing surge. The men's 4x100m fell to the United States in 37.43, with South Africa and Germany — the latter finishing third in 37.76 — both edging closer to the World Championships qualifying bar.
Saturday night's world record in the women's 4x100m, set by Jamaica through a different quartet, has now been bookended by Sunday's mixed 4x100m mark, giving the championship two world records and three national records over a 28-hour window. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe used the closing press conference to confirm the relays will return to Africa within the next decade, and to highlight Botswana's place as the first host nation south of the equator to deliver a World Athletics Relays. With Tokyo's outdoor World Championships now four months away, the meeting has reset every relay-podium projection in the book.