Kenya's 4×400 mixed relays qualify for Beijing meet with new Africa record

Kenya's 4x400m mixed relay team has qualified for the 2027 World Athletics Championships in Beijing after a second-place finish in their heat at the ongoing 2026 World Relays, The Debswana World Athletics Relays at the National Stadium in Gaborone, Botswana, setting a new African record of 3:09.87.

Speaking from Gaborone on Saturday, Athletics Kenya (AK) Director of youth development Barnaba Korir, praised his charges for earning a spot in Beijing while encouraging the rest of the team to push on for Sunday.

"We have good athletes, and for sure, we want to qualify for the international events as many as possible. The team is in great shape, on Sunday it will be different," said Korir.

Kenya's mixed relays team that has booked a spot at the 21st edition of the World Athletics Championships slated for Beijing, 11-19 September at the National Stadium in 2027, is George Mutinda, Mercy Oketch, Kelvin Tonui, and Mercy Chebet, who finished second in Gaborone, an event that Great Britain won.

Other Kenyan relay teams have further qualification opportunities in the repechage rounds on Sunday at the same venue in Gaborone, but in the 4x100m Mixed Relay team, the quartet of Moses Onyango, Millicent Ndoro, Dennis Mwai, and Mercy Oketch failed to make it to the final after a fourth-place finish in Heat 3 when they clocked 41.35.

Africa's fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala, led the 4x100m on Saturday, a team that included Mark Otieno, Ronald Koech, and Meshack Babu, who ran their season best of 38.50 seconds to finish 5th, and now on Sunday will have a second shot at the final qualifying round when they will need to finish in the top two to seal a place in Beijing

Kenya had no luck in the last events of the day as they finished last in the women’s 4x400m relay, clocking 3:35.90, despite Mercy Oketch winning the first leg, as well as the men’s 4x400m relay team who also finished last. The two sides will hope to make amends in the second qualifying round on Sunday

The first eight teams in each relay event at this event have secured their places for the World Athletics Championships Beijing 27 following the opening day of competition on Saturday.

The remaining teams return for an additional qualifying round on Sunday, where four teams – the top two in each heat – will secure the final automatic qualification places available for the 2027 World Championships, to end up with a total of 48 relay teams for Beijing 27.

The finals, meanwhile, will decide prize money and preferential lane seeding positions for the World Championships.

The mixed relay events in Gaborone also serve as the main qualification route for the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Budapest 26.

The top six teams in each of the mixed 4x100m and mixed 4x400m finals on Sunday will automatically qualify for Budapest.