Australia's men's 4x400m relay team scores bronze in time that would have won gold at almost every Olympic Games
Australia clinched bronze in the men's 4x400m at the world athletics relays as the national record in the event fell for a second time in two days.
And a team featuring Luke van Ratingen, Reece Holder, Thomas Reynolds and Aidan Murphy ran a time that would have won men's 4x400m gold at every world championships and Olympics in history bar two: the 1993 world titles in Stuttgart and Paris 2024. Theirs was the fastest bronze medal time in 4x400m history.
The bronze medal-winning performance in the final event of the world relays put a huge exclamation mark on Australia's campaign in Botswana, which saw Australia become the only country to qualify for every relay event at the 2027 world championships.
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In a final being hailed as the greatest 4x400m race in history, Botswana claimed gold in a championship record of 2:54.47, ahead of South Africa (2:55.07) and Australia (2:55.20).
On day one of the world relays, an Australian team consisting of van Ratingen, Holder, Matthew Hunt and Murphy clocked 2:57.30 to shatter a national record that had stood since 1984, when a team featuring Darren Clark, Bruce Frayne, Gary Minihan and Rick Mitchell ran 2:59.70 at the Los Angeles Olympics.
Thomas Reynolds, Reece Holder, Aidan Murphy and Luke van Ratingen celebrate winning bronze in the men's 4x400m at the world athletics relays. Supplied
In other words, a national record that had stood since 1984 was broken in the heats, and more than two seconds were slashed off the fresh record the following day.
Inside a heaving stadium in Gaborone, van Ratingen got Australia under way with a split of 44.86 seconds.
Holder then unleashed a blistering 43.12-second lap, before Reynolds clocked 43.43 and Murphy 43.79.
Murphy is the gun Adelaide sprinter who ran second to teen sensation Gout Gout in the 200m final at the national championships in Sydney last month with a time of 19.88. Gout (19.67) and Murphy both broke the previous national record.
"It was so surreal and such a vibe out there," Holder said after the 4x400m final.
"To come out and win a medal and do a time like that is pretty incredible."
Australia's 2:55.20 is the sixth-fastest 4x400m time in global history.
The second and final day of the world relays also saw Australia finish fourth in the men's 4x100m.
A team featuring sub-10-second flyer Lachlan Kennedy, Josh Azzopardi, Christopher Ius and Olympic semi-finalist Rohan Browning clocked 38.00 seconds, finishing just .20 of a second behind bronze medallists Germany.
Australia's men's 4x100m team: Lachlan Kennedy, Josh Azzopardi, Christopher Ius and Rohan Browning. Supplied
"We wanted to make the final and came wanting a medal, so to get so close is disappointing," Ius said.
"But to show the rest of the world what we can do is such a good thing, and I think we are improving every year which is exciting."
Come the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, Australia could have Gout and Kiwi defector Eddie Nketia in the men's 4x100m squad.
Australia is at this point the only country qualified for next year's Beijing world championships in all six of the relay events: the men's and women's 4x100m and 4x400m, and the mixed 4x100m and 4x400m.
The success of Australia's campaign is testament to the investment Australian Athletics (AA) has poured into relay running since the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.
