Regardless of the anti-climax after media-hyped Bolt-Gatlin showdown, the IAAF/BTC World Relays in the Bahamas proved extremely fruitful to the US athletes. US dominated the event with victories in prestigious men’s 4x100m, men & women’s 4x400m, men & women’s 4x800m, men and women’s distance medley relays. With 63 points in all, USA retained the Golden Baton they won last year on the same venue. For USA, it was an improvement over their last year’s performance, when they had collected 60 points. Yet again Jamaica had to remain content with the second place with victories in women’s 4×100 and men’s 4x200m. USA were unlucky in the 4x200m for men as well as women’s relays because of baton-drop and suffered disqualifications. USA’s misfortune proved lucky for Nigerian women, who took the top spot in 4x200m.
It was a coincident than both men and women from USA would drop the batons in 4×200 relays. The men’s event was akin to a comedy of errors for both Jamaica and the USA. While the Jamaicans managed to win despite a sloppy second exchange, the Americans were not so lucky. In the second exchange between Isiah Young and Curtis Mitchell, the baton went flying and USA were disqualified. The worse fate beckoned USA in women’s 4×200 in which they had successfully built a huge advantage after three legs run by Shalonda Solomon, Kimberlyn Duncan and Jeneba Tarmoh. But disaster struck in the final baton exchange, when Allyson Felix couldn’t get a firm grip because Tarmoh bumped into her and Felix fell to the ground. With that, the race slipped out of their hands.
American athletes had their victories sweetened by world records in both distance medleys and competition records in men & women’s 4x800m finals; men’s 4x100m and women’s 4x400m. Poland had three podium finishes; including second places in men & women’s 4x800m relays and they finished third after USA and Jamaica. Australia improved on their last year’s standing to take the fourth place. The 5th to 8th places were taken by Germany, France, Kenya and Great Britain in that order. All these 8 nations will automatically qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in these events.