More relay teams for World Championships
What you need to know:
- For the 4x400m mixed relay, which will be contested for the first time, 12 teams will qualify from the World Relays in Yokohama.
- Target numbers have also been introduced for the road events and 10,000m races. Marathons will be limited to 100 entries, 60 for the 20km race walks, 50 for the men's 50km race walk and 30 for the women's.
More teams will qualify from the World Relay Championships to the World Championships, according to changes effected in qualifying standards by the International Association of Athletics Federations on Tuesday.
The World Relay Championships will be staged on May 10 to 11, 2019 in Yokohama, Japan followed by the World Championships on October 1 to 6 in Doha, Qatar.
A statement from IAAF noted that while the performance standards themselves are similar to those used for the 2017 London World Championships, Doha will witness two notable differences.
The number of teams qualifying from the World Relays has been increased from eight to 10 in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays, for a total of 16 entries.
For the 4x400m mixed relay, which will be contested for the first time, 12 teams will qualify from the World Relays in Yokohama.
Target numbers have also been introduced for the road events and 10,000m races. Marathons will be limited to 100 entries, 60 for the 20km race walks, 50 for the men's 50km race walk and 30 for the women's.
The men’s 10,000m will have 27 athletes each. The 10,000m women’s race at the 2017 London World Championships had an entry of 33 athletes while men had 24.
Athletics Kenya have organised for three legs of the Relay Series on March 2 in Mombasa, March 16 in Kisumu and April 6 in Nakuru, ahead of the National World Relays trials on April 13 at Lorna Kiplagat Stadium, Iten.
