Jamaica’s men’s 4x100m team will have to wait until Sunday’s second round if they are to book a place in the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan in September after they failed to complete their first round race on Saturday’s opening day of the World Relays in Guangzhou, China.

After a good start by Rohan Watson, the exchange between the most two experienced runners, Julian Forte and Yohan Blake, was not made and the Jamaicans failed to complete what was expected to be a major clash against a strong South African team.

According to the rules of the championships, teams that fail to progress to the final in the five relays – men’s and women’s 4x100m and 4x400m and the mixed 4x400m – get another chance to run in the second round.

Failing in either round would see the team having to wait until the final day of the qualifying window to take one of the two fastest times to make up the top-16 teams that will qualify for the World Championships.