The Netherlands have named a team of Olympic and European medallists for the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China on 10-11 May.
Eugene Omalla, a member of the Olympic gold medal winning 4x400m mixed relay team at Paris last year, spearheads the men’s 4x400m team. He will be joined by Nick Smidt who was also part of the men’s and mixed 4x400 quartets who struck gold for the host nation at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in March.
The Dutch will not be taking women’s 4x400m or mixed 4x400m relay teams to China, confident that their second place world ranking in both events will hold steady to secure their places in September’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where the likes of Femke Bol and Lieke Klaver will likely feature.
They will, however, take both men’s and women’s 4x100m teams to Guangzhou, including five medallists from the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships.
The men’s team includes Roma 2024 4x100m silver medallists Elvis Afrifa, Taymir Burnet and Xavi Mo-Ajok. Meanwhile, the women’s team includes Marije van Hunenstijn and Minke Bisschops, both members of the bronze medal winning team at Roma 2024.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics