Gaborone 2026 World Relays: Tough Luck for Team Kenya as Medal and Extra World Championships Tickets Elude Them

Team Kenya came close to winning a medal at the 2026 World Relays Championships but ultimately missed out in painful fashion when their mixed 4x400m relay team finished fourth.

Carrying the country’s hope for a medal in Gaborone, Botswana on Sunday, the team of George Mutinda, Mercy Chebet, Kelvin Tonui and Mercy Oketch had a great start but not a good ending.

Mutinda did well to stay in the leading pack and then handed the baton to Mercy Chebet, who struggled to maintain the same momentum, but Tonui would raise the game on the third leg after which he handed it over to Oketch.

Oketch would stay in contention for third place but saw her big gap disappear in the final stretch when Great Britain’s Yemi John closed in to steal bronze at the finish line.

It saw Kenya end the event empty-handed with the silver lining being that the 4x400m relay team clinched a place in the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in addition to the 2025 World Championships.

Kenya will, however, only have one team going to the 2027 World Championships directly from the 2026 World Relays after missing out in all their other events in the second qualifying round on Sunday.

Team Kenya had a chance to seal tickets to Beijing in the mixed 4x100m, women’s and men’s 4x400m as well as the men’s 4x100m but missed out on Sunday.

First on the track was the mixed 4x100m relay team of Moses Wasike, Millicent Ndoro, Dennis Mwai and Eunice Kadogo but they struggled to make an impact as they could only finish last in their heat in 41.87 seconds, missing out on the top two that was required to seal a World Championships ticket.

The same fate befell the country’s 4x400m women’s team of Lonoline Aoko, Hellen Syombua, Margaret Naserian and Maureen Nanjala who finished fourth in their heat in a season’s best 3:32.24 to miss out on a ticket.

However, Kenya could have perhaps sealed a place to the 2027 World Championships in the men’s 4x400m relay were it not for an unfortunate fall.

Dennis Mulongo started well in the first leg, taking the lead before passing the baton to Danson Kibet and he also performed impressively before handing it over to Erastus Mbaluka.

Mbaluka maintained the lead and handed the baton to Kevin Kipkorir and he seemed to be cruising well until he tumbled after his leg got tangled with a rival runner.

This led to a fall which lost him valuable time and while he rose and continued, it was not enough to make up for lost ground. Kipkorir brought it home gallantly in sixth place.

Meanwhile, Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala came so close to leading Kenya’s 4x100m relay team to the World Championships but fell short when he finished third on the anchor leg.

Team Kenya had Mark Otieno, Ronald Koech and Meshak Babu on the first three legs but they could not match the pace of China and Ghana before finding Omanyala who had a big gap to close down.