Twenty-four hours after briefly holding the world record for the new 4x100m mixed relay event, Canada climbed to the second step of the podium behind Jamaica at the World Relays Championships. The champions of the day won in 39.62 seconds, improving their own world record set in Saturday’s qualifiers.
Audrey Leduc staged a comeback in the final relay of the day to surpass her American rival in the last meters. The United States had to settle for the bronze, just ten hundredths behind Canada. Marie-Ève Leclair, Eliezer Adjibi, and Duan Asemota carried the baton on the first three segments at the Debswana track in Botswana, before a very enthusiastic crowd. Before this silver medal, the event’s champions in 2025 had secured Canada’s spot at the World Athletics Championships planned for 2027 in Beijing.
Leduc and Leclair also combined their efforts with Ontarian Sade McCreath and Quebecois Donna Ntambue about twenty minutes later to win silver in the women’s 4x100m relay. The Canadians were leading at the last baton handover between Leclair and Ntambue, but the latter was overtaken by her Jamaican rival Elaine Thompson-Herah, who stopped the clock at exactly 42 seconds.
“Overall, I think we gave a very good performance under the circumstances,” emphasized Audrey Leduc in an interview with Radio-Canada Sports. “It started very well this season, it shows that we are in good form, as we did four races in two days,” she added.
“It’s really being able to do it when it counts that is special for us right now,” affirmed her teammate Marie-Ève Leclair. By completing the race in 42.17 seconds, the Canadians set a national record.
The Canadian female sprinters in the 4x400m relay also clinched a medal, finishing in 3rd place. Zoe Sherar, Lauren Gale, Jasneet Nijjar, and Savannah Sutherland ran the distance in 3:22.66, a season record for the quartet. Norway and Spain completed the podium.
In the men’s event, the reigning Olympic champion Canada had to settle for 7th place after the right thigh injury of the second relay runner Jerome Blake. He struggled to hobble to Brendon Rodney. Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown completed the quartet, as in Paris in 2024. The Americans took the gold in 37.43 ahead of South Africa and Germany.
