{"id":647998,"date":"2026-05-04T01:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T01:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/647998\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T01:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T01:13:07","slug":"relay-team-grab-bronze-at-worlds-on-another-red-letter-day-for-australian-athletics-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/647998\/","title":{"rendered":"Relay team grab bronze at worlds on another red letter day for Australian athletics | Athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia secured a thrilling bronze and ran the sixth-fastest men\u2019s 4x400m time in history at the World Athletics<\/a> Relays in Botswana, on a day the country proved its pedigree in the team-based format.<\/p>\n

The team of Luke van Ratingen, Reece Holder, Thomas Reynolds and Aidan Murphy pushed home heroes Botswana and South Africa right to the line in a marvellous contest that was not settled until the final metres.<\/p>\n

Their time of 2:55.20 broke the Australian record they set in the preliminary round the previous day, and would have won gold at every Olympics apart from Paris 2024, when the United States held off Botswana.<\/p>\n

The time set by the United States\u2019 1993 world championship-winning team, anchored by Michael Johnson, remains one of athletics\u2019 longest-standing marks. Australia finished within a second of it, underlining this young team\u2019s status as a medal threat at Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032.<\/p>\n

The Australians\u2019 performance make up for the pain of last year\u2019s world championship in Tokyo, when a positioning error by Murphy triggered the squad\u2019s disqualification from their heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so surreal and such a vibe out there,\u201d Holder said, reflecting on the carnival-like atmosphere created by the adoring home fans in Gaborone. \u201cTo come out and win a medal and do a time like that is pretty incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holder ran the second leg in a split time of 43.12sec, the third fastest in the race behind only Botswana anchor Collen Kebinatshipi and South African Lythe Pillay, whose 42.66sec was recognised as the fastest split ever recorded in the event.<\/p>\n

Although split times are not formally ranked, Pillay\u2019s second leg \u2013 when he surged past Botswana\u2019s 200m Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo \u2013 eclipsed Johnson\u2019s previous mark from 1993 by a quarter of a second.<\/p>\n

The swift times and dramatic finale, when Murphy pushed world champion Kebinatshipi and South Africa\u2019s Zakithi Nene around the bend and up the final straight, as the jubilant home fans urged on their countrymen, made this one of the most memorable 4x400m races in history.<\/p>\n

Table showing where Australia\u2019s race ranks among the fastest 4x400m races in history<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s prominent contribution underscored its emergence as a force in team-based events. Australian Athletics has invested in dedicated relay camps and training in recent years, and the decision appears to be paying dividends.<\/p>\n

Australia was the only nation to qualify all six relay teams for the Beijing world championships, highlighting both depth of talent and consistent execution in each event.<\/p>\n

The world relays event sits beneath the Olympics and world championships in the hierarchy of international athletics meets, and was only established in 2014. But its reputation is building, leveraging the dramatic appeal and unpredictable nature of the relays format.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s 4x400m team of Alice Dixon, Alanah Yukich, Sarah Carli and Ellie Beer came second to Poland, with a season\u2019s best time of 3:26.92. Photograph: Pawel Skraba\/Australian Athletics<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s meet in Botswana served as a qualification path for next year\u2019s world championships in Beijing. All six Australian teams secured a berth, and Australia\u2019s men\u2019s 4x100m came agonisingly close to a medal, finishing fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make the final and came wanting a medal, so to get so close is disappointing,\u201d bend-specialist Chris Ius said. \u201cBut to show the rest of the world we can do is such a good thing, and I think we are improving every year which is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mixed 4x400m team finished seventh in their final, while the other three squads \u2013 the women\u2019s 4x100m, 4x400m and mixed 4x100m \u2013 all progressed through the qualification races to book their places in China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia secured a thrilling bronze and ran the sixth-fastest men\u2019s 4x400m time in history at the World Athletics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-647998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}