Australia’s men’s 4x400m relay team has shattered a 42-year-old national record at the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, Botswana. The quartet of Luke van Ratingen, Reece Holder, Matthew Hunt, and Aidan Murphy clocked a time of 2:57.30 in their heat to qualify for the final, eclipsing the previous mark of 2:59.70 set at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics.
The record-breaking run exorcised the demons from last year’s World Athletics Championships, where the team of Cooper Sherman, Holder, Murphy, and Tom Reynolds had set a new record only to be disqualified for a line violation. Now, the team heads into the final with hopes of securing a breakthrough medal.
Meanwhile, host nation Botswana faced embarrassment after a mid-race showboating incident backfired. In the third leg, Botswana’s Collen Kebinatshipi caught up to Hunt and stared at him down the home straight, attempting to play mind games. However, his baton exchange to Bayapo Ndori was poor, giving Murphy a significant head start.
“They’ve got it wrong! Oh my goodness me,” exclaimed the commentator. “That’s going to be very close to whether that changed in time. Can you believe it? Nervous moments and they’ve completely lost their momentum. That was touch-and-go.”
Ndori closed the gap on Murphy but could not catch him, with Australia winning the heat by 0.22 seconds. Botswana escaped disqualification for the exchange but faced criticism from fans. “Instant karma,” one wrote. Another said: “He deserved to drop the baton, third leg in a relay qualifier you cannot do that.” A third added: “That’s so unprofessional. Finish your race and showboat later. Disappointing.”
In addition to qualifying for the final, both Australia and Botswana secured their places in the 4x400m event at next year’s World Athletics Championships.
“Everyone is feeling unreal! The team is strong and the time has always been there, it’s just been about getting the race done,” Holder said. “We’re still a young team and we have many years to come, so we’ll just be lowering that time down. All I can say right now is we’re hot.”
Australia’s men’s 4x100m and mixed 4x400m teams also set national records in their heats. The men’s 4x100m team of Lachlan Kennedy, Josh Azzopardi, Chris Ius, and Rohan Browning ran 37.87 to equal the national record set last year, finishing third to qualify for the final.
“I think we’ll go really well tomorrow,” Kennedy said. “That’s just the standard now that we want to be competing for medals each year, and I think that tomorrow we can all go a little bit faster. We have a real red-hot chance, but we have to back it up. Rohan man, he’s still got it — unc has still got it.”
The mixed 4x400m team of Sherman, Ellie Beer, Reynolds, and Mia Gross ran 3:10.57 to set a new Australian record and reach the final. “That was one of the coolest experiences that I have ever been a part of, I could feel the whole stadium yelling and screaming. I genuinely ran with goosebumps,” Gross said. “Tom Reynolds has been saying this entire week that we are going to break the Australian record. We knew that we could do it, but to do it by that much (nearly two seconds) and with such a great team, it’s amazing.”
However, the women’s 4x100m team (Ebony Lane, Torrie Lewis, Monique Hanlon, and Georgia Harris) was disqualified from their heat for an illegal baton change. The mixed 4x100m team (Jai Gordon, Lakara Stallan, Calab Law, and Chloe Mannix-Power) finished third in their heat, just 0.06 seconds shy of qualifying for the final. Both groups will compete in a last-chance qualifying race to keep their medal hopes alive.
