Hot favourites the United States led the way in qualifying for the World Championships mixed 4x400 metres relay on Saturday, but defending champions the Dominican Republic did not appear on the start line in the morning heats.

With 200m specialist Gabby Thomas held in reserve for Saturday’s final, the US team of Ryan Willie, Rosey Effiong, Justin Robinson and Alexis Holmes looked impressive, but did not have it all their own way on a sodden opening morning.

After its early years, when teams experimented somewhat with the order, the event has settled into a man-woman-man-woman routine, removing some of the drama of major shifts of position during the race.

A brilliant second leg by Britain’s Laviai Nielsen swept her past the US’s Effiong and into the lead but the favourites pulled it back with the impressive Holmes leading them home in 3:10.41. Yemi Mary John, sporting an eye-catching “one leg legging”, ensured Britain finished second in a national record 3:11.19, with Belgium third for the other automatic qualifying slot.

The Netherlands are probably best equipped to challenge the US for gold and won the second leg with the peerless Femke Bol looking as if she was out for a morning jog as she brought them home in 3:12.12. France finished strongly for second in a national record 3:12.25.

Olympic champions Poland initially missed out after a collision at the final changeover meant Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz-Zawadzka had to hurdle a fallen runner, leaving her 20 metres adrift. They finished last but, after an appeal, were added to the final line-up — helped by the track having nine lanes.

The US won the inaugural World Championships event in 2019 in a world record 3:09.34 that still stands, but were third in Eugene last year, having also only managed bronze on the event’s Olympic debut in Tokyo.

First gold

Alvaro Martin of Spain captured gold in the 20-kilometre race walk in the opening event of the World Championships on Saturday.

Martin moved into the lead with about 5km remaining to finish in one hour 17 minutes and 32 seconds, the fastest time in the world this season, on the soggy 1km loop course that started and finished at picturesque Heroes’ Square.

Sweden’s Perseus Karlstrom, a three-time world bronze medallist, won silver in 1:17:39, while Caio Bonfim of Brazil claimed the bronze (1:17:47) to match his medal from the 2017 worlds in London.

Home support

Bence Halasz, Hungary’s best hope for a medal at their own World Championships, earned the biggest roar of the opening morning on Saturday when he launched his hammer 78.13 metres to sail into Sunday’s final at the first attempt.

The hammer is close to everyone’s heart in the host nation, who have won five Olympic men’s golds in the event and seven of their 14 world silver and bronze.

Halasz, joint bronze-medallist in 2019 and fifth last year, launched his first throw and surpassed the automatic qualifying mark of 77 metres to the delight of the vocal morning crowd.

Sable fails to qualify for finals

Budapest: Avinash Sable, the national record holder 3000m steeplechaser, failed to qualify for the final round of the World Athletics Championships after finishing a disappointing seventh in his heat race in a shocking result here on Saturday.

Sable, who trained abroad for many months on sports ministry's funding to prepare for this showpiece event and was exempted from competing in domestic events, clocked 8 minutes and 22.24 seconds to finish seventh in heat number one.

It was a tactical race and the 28-year-old failed yet again in the biggest stage. He was the lead runner at the 2300m mark but lost momentum later on, especially in the last lap, to clock well below his national record time of 8:11.20.

Only the top five finishers in the three heats make it to the final round.

This was Sable's third World Championships appearance and for the first time, he could not reach the final round. He had finished 11th in the final in Eugene last year and was 13th in the 2019 Doha edition.

The Indians also brought up the rear in the men's 20km race walk. Vikash Singh finished 28th in a time of 1 hour 21 minute 58 seconds, while Paramjit Singh (1:24:02) and Akashdeep Singh (1:31:12) were 35th and 47th, respectively.

PTI