One month to go, the 8th World Athletics Relays will take place May 2–3, 2026, in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, taking over the baton from Guangzhou. This will also be the first time the World Athletics Relays are held in Africa.

This Relays will not only affect qualification for the 2027 Beijing World Athletics Championships, but will also be closely linked to qualification for the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Champions in Budapest (to be held Sept 11–13, 2026).

Qualification for the inaugural Budapest Ultimate Champions will mainly come through the mixed relay (4x400 mixed relay) category: the top six teams at this Relays and the top two teams in the 2026 rankings will secure places at the Ultimate Champions.  

For the 2027 Beijing World Championships, the top eight teams in the standard relay events at this Relays (such as the 4x100 and 4x400), the top four teams from this Relays' repechage, and the teams ranked in the top four for 2027 will qualify directly for next year's Beijing World Championships. 

At last year's World Athletics Relays held in Guangzhou, the Chinese team broke the national records in the men's 4×400 m and the mixed 4×400 m. Will China's athletes deliver new surprises this year?

At the Tokyo World Championships the US team made frequent baton-passing errors. To prepare for the Los Angeles Olympics on home soil, US Athletics' relay program has already begun adjusting how relay athletes are selected. It's unclear whether this will affect the United States' performance at this competition.

Next month, let's all turn our attention tothe World Athletics Relays.