Australia’s 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Luke van Ratingen, Ellie Beer, Terrell Thorne and Carla Bull are celebrating the country’s second ever silver medal at the WorldAthleticsRelays championship in China after another record-breaking run.
The Australian foursome could not match the American champions in Guangzhou on Sunday but, for the second day running, lowered the national and Oceanian record to take the silver in 3min 12.20sec.
On a fine final session of the two-day event, their medals were the icing on the cake as four Australian teams booked their places for the world championships in Tokyo, including the men’s 4x100m, who could feature both sprint stars Lachlan Kennedy and Gout Gout in Japan.
The mixed, women’s and men’s 4x400m teams also all made it to the global showpiece in September.
Pride of place, though, went to the mixed quartet, which demonstrated its strength in depth in the final, being much changed from the foursome of Bull, Cooper Sherman, Reece Holder and Alanah Yukich who had broken the Oceanian record in 3:12.34 in the heats on Saturday.
The American quartet of Chris Robinson, Courtney Okolo, Johnnie Blockburger and Lynna Irby-Jackson were in a class of their own as they broke the championship record in 3:09.54, but the Australians matched the nation’s best result in the seven editions of the event.
The only other silver they had won was in 2019 in Yokohama when Catriona Bisset and Josh Ralph finished second in the 2x2x400m relay.
“I couldn’t be any more stoked. We were so ecstatic to make the final and coming away with a silver medal, we are just so happy. We got all of our 400m crews to the world championships which is so exciting,” said Beer, the 22-year-old Olympian who had earlier also helped the women’s 4x400 qualify.
Bull’s big night saw her also just miss out on another medal as the youthful mixed 4x100m team – alongside Olivia Dodds, Connor Bond and Josiah John – clocked 41.22sec to finish fourth in the final behind Canada.
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The men’s 4x100m outfit of world indoor 60m silver medallist Kennedy, Joshua Azzopardi, Christopher Ius and Prince Jackson clocked 38.31sec to claim second place in qualifying round two and book Australia’s place at the global championships.
“We are really stepping up our standards this year coming off the national record of 37.8 in Sydney,” said Azzopardi, who know the team could be bolstered by 17-year-old Gout Gout in September. “We feel like we can really push for those medals and that will be the goal. We will be ready come the world championships in September and that’s the main thing.”
The men’s 4x400m – Sherman, Reece Holder, Aidan Murphy and Tom Reynolds – clocked 2:59.73 to clinch their place in Tokyo, just 0.03sec outside the venerable 41-year-old Australian record.
The international highlight came with Britain’s 4x100m women’s team – Nia Wedderburn-Goodison, Amy Hunt, Bianca Williams and Success Eduan – stunning both Jamaica, whose team included Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, and the USA to claim victory.