Australia’s 4x400m men have smashed a 42-year-old national record at the world relays as home heroes Botswana paid the price for mid-race showboating in Gaborone.
Luke van Ratingen, Reece Holder, Matthew Hunt and Aidan Murphy clocked 2:57.30 in the heat to reach the final and take down the 2:59.70 mark set at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Aussies smash record as showboating rival cops ‘instant karma’
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The record-setting run buried the demons from last year’s world athletics championships, when Cooper Sherman, Holder, Murphy and Tom Reynolds lowered the mark before being disqualified for a line breach.
The team will now head into the world relays final hunting a breakthrough medal — with hosts Botswana looking to atone for their heat blunder.
Collen Kebinatshipi caught up to Hunt in the third leg and played mind games down the home straight, staring right at the Aussie ahead of the last baton exchange.
But Kebinatshipi’s hand-off to Bayapo Ndori was poor, allowing Murphy to get a huge head start.
“They’ve got it wrong! Oh my goodness me,” the commentator said.
“That’s going to be very close to whether that changed in time. Can you believe it? Nervous moments and they’ve completely lost their momentum. That was touch-and-go.”
Ndori closed on Murphy but had too much to do, with Australia claiming victory by 0.22 seconds.
Botswana escaped a disqualification for the dramatic exchange but copped a hit to their reputation as fans weighed in.
“Instant karma,” one wrote.
Another said: “He deserved to drop the baton, third leg in a relay qualifier you cannot do that.”
One more wrote: “That’s so unprofessional. Finish your race and showboat later. Disappointing.”
As well as qualifying for the final, Australia and Botswana also secured their place in the 4x400m at next year’s showpiece world athletics championships.
“Everyone is feeling unreal! The team is strong and the time has always been there, it’s just been about getting the race done,” Holder said.
“We’re still a young team and we have many years to come, so we’ll just be lowering that time down. All I can say right now is we’re hot.”
Australia’s men’s 4x100m and mixed 4x400m teams also set national records in the heats.
Lachlan Kennedy, Josh Azzopardi, Chris Ius and Rohan Browning ran 37.87 to equal the mark set last year, finishing third to qualify for the final.
“I think we’ll go really well tomorrow,” Kennedy said.
“That’s just the standard now that we want to be competing for medals each year, and I think that tomorrow we can all go a little bit faster.
“We have a real red-hot chance, but we have to back it up. Rohan man, he’s still got it — unc has still got it.”
The mixed 4x400m team of Sherman, Ellie Beer, Reynolds and Mia Gross ran 3:10.57 to set their new record and reach the final.
“That was one of the coolest experiences that I have ever been a part of, I could feel the whole stadium yelling and screaming. I genuinely ran with goosebumps,” Gross said.
“Tom Reynolds has been saying this entire week that we are going to break the Australian record. We knew that we could do it, but to do it but by that much (nearly two seconds) and with such a great team, it’s amazing.”
The women’s 4x100m team (Ebony Lane, Torrie Lewis, Monique Hanlon and Georgia Harris) were disqualified from their heat for an illegal change.
The mixed 4x100m team (Jai Gordon, Lakara Stallan, Calab Law and Chloe Mannix-Power) finished third in their heat — just 0.06 seconds shy of qualifying for the final.
Both groups will take part in a last-chance qualifying race in a bid to keep their medal hopes alive.
