JAMAICA Athletics Administration Association (JAAA) President Garth Gayle says incorporating the mixed relays into the school calendar will provide athletes and coaches with a better understanding of the event and inspire them to strive for international gold medals.

The mixed relay entails teams of four athletes each — two women and two men — racing against each other. The new 4x400m relay race format was first trialled at the 2017 World Athletics Relays in Nassau, The Bahamas but it was not until the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, the event really began to grow in popularity.

In that final, all but one team chose a man-woman-man-woman order, with the exception of Poland which chose man-man-woman-woman. In March 2022 the rule was changed so that every team must now use the man-woman-man-woman order.

Gayle said that the mixed relay will now be a permanent feature among the events at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs).

“It [mixed relay] will also be held at the SW Isaac-Henry Invitational meet on February 17, but it will also become a feature at the Boys’ and Girls’ Champs onwards,” Gayle told the
Jamaica Observer.

“World Athletics has brought this event into the track and field programme and, naturally, Jamaicans won’t want to be left out.

“If you watch what has been happening internationally at the World Championships, we have never treated this event with the proper respect it needs and so by having it on the school calendar it will allow our athletes to understand more about the event; and I’m sure our coaches will spur us on to put out formidable teams internationally and to also now be challenging for gold medals in this event.”

Gayle says that this move is also to grow the sport in the country as JAAA wants to have a reputation for fostering new events within the track and field series.

“Yes, for sure, and we embrace it as an affiliate of World Athletics here in Jamaica,” Gayle said. “Jamaica has also been known to be a fertile ground for new events within the track and field series of events and so we’re happy that we are continuing this step.

“I’m expecting that, naturally, the Olympics later [will feature the event] and also, well, at [the Carifta Games], starting from Carifta, which is another junior international regional event. And knowing that our athletes will be doing well and be taking the gold in Grenada in that event, it will continue on to our seniors into the Olympic Games.”