Mixed 4x400 Relay Gives Thomas A Chance To Be Part Of Three Relays In Addition To The 200 Meters

By David Woods for DyeStat

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Gabby Thomas announced – and casually so – that she is in the mix to make track and field history. Credit, in part, the mixed relay.

Four athletes, all women, have won four medals at a World Championships. Thomas could make it five.

“I’m trying to make up for missed medals last year,” Thomas said at a news conference Friday.

Moreover, the 26-year-old sprinter is attempting to do so by racing at three distances: 100, 200, 400 meters.

She disclosed she is to run in the final of Saturday’s mixed 4x400-meter relay on the opening night of Budapest’s nine-day run. 

Coincidentally, training partner Lynna Irby-Jackson had been scheduled to do so but was pulled after Irby-Jackson subbed into the 400 meters. Irby-Jackson was fourth at nationals, and she claimed the third spot when winner Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone announced she was out with a knee injury.

Tentative Thomas timetable:

>> Saturday, mixed 4x400 relay, final.

>> Wednesday, 200 meters, heats.

>> Thursday, 200 meters, semifinal.

>> Friday, Aug. 25, 200 meters, final.

>> Saturday, Aug. 26, 4x100 relay, final.

>> Sunday, Aug. 27, 4x400 relay, final.

“It’s spread out enough,” said Tonja Buford-Bailey, who coaches Thomas in a Texas training group. “Each 200 is one a day. So she should be fine.

“She’s put in the work this year. She ran 100s, she ran 200s, she ran 400s. And she also doubled at meets.”

Those earning four medals at a single Worlds are East Germany’s Marita Koch (1983) and Katrin Krabbe (1991), and Americans Gwen Torrence (1993) and Allyson Felix (2011). Koch won three golds, as did Felix.

No one has won four golds. Men with three are Carl Lewis (1983 and 1987), Michael Johnson (1995), Maurice Greene (1999), Tyson Gay (2007) and Usain Bolt (2009, 2013, 2015).

The mixed relay is a new event that is perhaps taken more seriously than when it was introduced.

“It’s a way to work with other teammates that typically you don’t get a chance to work with in other events and other relays,” Thomas said. “It’s really exciting because you have new goals you can look forward to. We’re eyeing a world record.”

The world record of 3:09.34, set in the 2019 Worlds at Doha, was by the U.S. team of Wil London III, Felix, Courtney Okolo and Michael Cherry.

Thomas had long been prodded to try the 400 and said she ran it reluctantly. Last April 29, she said, “I just woke up and said I wanted to run it.” At the Texas Invitational, she popped a 49.68 that still ranks No. 6 on this year’s world list.

“I just moved off that momentum, and I felt really good about it,” Thomas said. “I decided I wanted to put myself in the mix for the relays. It’s a great opportunity for me to get more medals.”

At the 2021 U.S. trials, she ran the 200 in 21.61, then the fastest since Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record of 21.34 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Then Thomas earned silver and bronze medals at the Tokyo Olympics.

But last year she strained a hamstring two weeks before nationals and failed to make Team USA for the worlds at Eugene, Ore.

“Now I’m just more motivated than ever,” Thomas said earlier this year at the Texas Relays. “I want to take what’s mine, and I want to show what I can do and work really hard for it.”

The time of 21.60 at nationals July 9 ranks her No. 4 on the all-time list.

Thomas’ duel against reigning world champion Shericka Jackson, who clocked 21.45 last year and 21.71 at the Jamaican trials, makes the women’s 200 meters one of the featured showdowns in Budapest.

Contact David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.