Clayton Anchors Jamaica to 39.62 Mixed Relay World Record

The baton reached Tia Clayton in the lead, and she did not surrender it. On the anchor leg of Jamaica's mixed 4x100m final at the Debswana World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, she carried the team across the line in 39.62 seconds. Jamaica's Ackeem Blake, Tina Clayton, Kadrian Goldson and Tia Clayton stormed to their second mixed 4x100m world record of the Debswana World Athletics Relays Gaborone 26, running 39.62 to win the final on Sunday.

How the final was won

The race was framed as a duel. The two teams went head-to-head in a thrilling final, in battle for the World Relays title, top prize money and qualification for the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September. Jamaica held the running order that had served them a day earlier. Using the running order of man, woman, man, woman, 2024 Diamond League 100m champion Blake handed the baton to Tina Clayton, who then passed it on to Goldson before Tia Clayton ran the anchor leg.

The margins told the story. Jamaica made it two world records in the space of 24 hours in the mixed 4x100m relays after storming to victory in 39.62 seconds on Sunday ahead of defending champions Canada (40.23) and the USA (40.33). The quartet had come to the final already holding the mark, and they lowered it. The quartet of Ackeem Blake, Tina Clayton, Kadrian Goldson and Tia Clayton shaved 0.39 off their own record set the previous day during the heats.

That heat had been history in itself. The competition started in sensational style as Jamaica's 39.99 in the third of the three mixed 4x100m heats beat the world record of 40.07 set by Canada in heat one. With that run, Jamaica became the first team to break the 40-second barrier, storming to a 39.99 clocking to win Heat 3 and shave 0.31 seconds off the previous world record achieved by Canada.

A step in the trajectory

Context deepens the achievement. Tia Clayton is a world 100m silver medallist, and this is her family's event as much as her nation's. Tina Clayton, world 100m silver medallist, also formed part of Jamaica's world silver medal-winning women's 4x100m team alongside her twin sister Tia in Tokyo last year. A relay silver becomes, months on, a world record shared by the twins on the same track.

Asked afterwards about the run, Tia Clayton returned to composure rather than spectacle.

"It's all about the mindset."

Two records in a single weekend. The green, yellow and black, first under forty, then further still.