Mixed 4x400m relay team members Wilbert London, Allyson Felix, Courtney Okolo, and Michael Cherry at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 (© Getty Images)
USA’s mixed 4x400m world record of 3:09.34 and Yaroslava Mahuchikh’s world U20 indoor high jump records of 2.01m and 2.02m have been ratified.
The US quartet of Wil London, Allyson Felix, Courtney Okolo and Michael Cherry produced their record-breaking mark when taking the gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Doha on 29 September 2019.
Their time took more than three seconds off the previous record, 3:12:42, set one day prior by their teammates Tyrell Richard, Jessica Beard, Jasmine Blocker and Obi Igbokwe, whose victory in the heats secured USA’s place in the final.
The first five teams in the World Championships final finished inside the one-day-old world record, but USA was the dominant force, winning by more than two seconds.
“I didn't feel the pressure,” said Cherry, the anchor leg runner. “I always go out hard and try to establish the lead for my team so that we can get the gold.”
As part of the world record programme at the World Championships, TDK will award a bonus of $100,000 to the team that broke the world record in the mixed 4x400m final.
Mahuchikh has twice broken the world U20 indoor high jump record this year, improving the previous record of 1.99m set by USA’s Vashti Cunningham at the World Indoor Championships in Portland on 12 March 2016.
The world silver medallist opened her season with a 2.01m clearance on home soil in Lviv on 18 January. She cleared all of her heights up to and including 1.95m on her first attempt. She needed two tries to negotiate 1.99m and then got over 2.01m on her third attempt.
At the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Karlsruhe on 31 January, Mahuchikh went one better. Pushed by compatriot Yuliya Levchenko, Mahuchikh’s first-time clearance at 1.99m put the 18-year-old into the lead. The bar was then raised to 2.02m, which Mahuchikh cleared on her first try. She ended her series with three unsuccessful attempts at 2.04m, but she had already done enough to win the competition.
“I expected (the record) because in Cottbus two days ago I tried 2.02m, and I thought I could do it here. And I did it on my first jump,” said Mahuchikh, who jumped a world U20 outdoor record of 2.04m to take world silver in Doha last year. "My third jump (at 2.04m in Karlsruhe) was very close.”
World Athletics
