Aaliyah Butler anchors USA to victory in the mixed 4x400m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Budapest 26 (© Getty Images)
It seemed fitting that USA, the world champions and world record-holders, won the mixed 4x400m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Budapest 26.
Although they had been beaten to the Olympic title in 2024, the USA have generally dominated the event in recent years. The sprints powerhouse had won the world titles in 2023 and 2025, they were victorious at this year’s World Relays, and have set four world records in the discipline.
Returning to the scene of their 2023 world title, the US quartet won in 3:08.32, taking almost half a second off the Hungarian all-comers’ record they had set three years ago.
Chris Bailey got the team off to a strong start with a 44.73 lead leg before handing over to Alexis Holmes. She maintained their lead, but Lieke Klaver’s 49.37 ensured the Netherlands were hot on their heels.
Jacory Patterson extended the USA’s leading margin on the third leg before handing over to Aaliyah Butler.
Great Britain & NI started to move into contention heading in the last leg. Charlotte Henrich closed in on the Netherlands and eventually caught Myrte van der Schoot with about 200 metres to go.
Butler, however, could not be caught, her 49.47 leg securing USA victory in 3:08.32. Great Britain took second place in 3:09.40, 0.17 ahead of the Dutch team.
Jamaica’s Stacey Ann Williams (48.72) and Hungary’s Attila Molnar (43.90) produced the fastest splits of the race, their teams finishing sixth and eighth respectively.
“The atmosphere with this team was so good,” said Holmes, who had anchored USA to victory at the 2023 World Championships in this same stadium. “Whenever the USA puts a team together, they put together a group they trust, people with the character to go out there and make it happen, and that is what we had today.”
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics
