The IAAF World Road Relay Championships was a biennial international athletics competition in long-distance relay running. First organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in 1992, the championship ran for four editions, with its last one occurring in 1998.[1][2]
The relay format was based on the ekiden races native to Japan, where six runners team up for legs of varying length to cover the classic 42.195 km marathon distance. The first, third and fifth legs were of 5 km each, the second and fourth legs were 10 km each, and the final leg covered the remaining 7.195 km.[3]
The first edition saw the Kenyan men's team break the world record for the ekiden relay with a run of 2:00:02 hours. The Moroccan team at the following edition improved this further with a world and championship record time of 1:57:56 hours. The Ethiopian women's team set the championship record of 2:16:04 hours in 1996 and retained their title the following year. Kenya and Ethiopia were the most successful nations at the event – Kenya took three men's titles, as well as a women's silver and a men's bronze, while Ethiopia had two women's titles, three silver medals and one bronze medal.[1]
The competition was preceded by the IAAF World Challenge Road Relay – a one-off race held in 1986 in Hiroshima.[4]
Editions
[edit]| Edition | Year | Location | Date | Men's teams | Women's teams | Athletes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | 1986 | Hiroshima, Japan | 30 November[5] | |||
| 1st | 1992 | Funchal, Portugal | 9–10 May | 138 | ||
| 2nd | 1994 | Litochoro, Greece | 16–17 April | 240 | ||
| 3rd | 1996 | Copenhagen, Denmark | 13–14 April | 25 | 12 | 210 |
| 4th | 1998 | Manaus, Brazil | 18–19 April | 25 | 12 | 222 |
Medallists
[edit]Men
[edit]
Women
[edit]
Medal table
[edit]- NB: Excludes World Challenge Road Relay medals
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Kenya (KEN) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 2 |  Ethiopia (ETH) | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 |  Portugal (POR) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 |  Morocco (MAR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
 Russia (RUS) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 6 |  Romania (ROM) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 7 |  Brazil (BRA) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 8 |  Denmark (DEN) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 |  Great Britain (GBR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Japan (JPN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Spain (ESP) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (11 entries) | 8 | 8 | 8 | 24 | |
References
[edit]- ^ a b IAAF World Road Relay Championships. Association of Road Racing Statisticians (2004-03-27). Retrieved on 2013-09-30.
- ^ Istanbul 2012 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (pg. 195). IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-09-30.
- ^ 4th IAAF World Road Relay Championships - highlights of the event to be broadcast world-wide from the heart of Amazonia Archived 2012-08-19 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF (1998-04-08). Retrieved on 2013-09-30.
- ^ IAAF World Road Relay Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2013-09-30.
- ^ UNITED KINGDOM NATIONAL RECORDS AND BEST PERFORMANCES. GBR Athletics. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
- ^ L'Ethiopie à Hiroshima (in French). La Liberté (1986-12-03). Retrieved 2020-06-17.
- List of medallists
- IAAF World Road Relay Championships. Association of Road Racing Statisticians (2004-03-27). Retrieved on 2013-09-30.
External links
[edit]World Championships organised by World Athletics | |
|---|---|
| Outdoor | |
| Indoor | |
| Continental Cup* | |
| U20 | |
| U18 | |
| Cross Country | |
| Race Walking | |
| Women's Road Race | |
| Marathon | |
| Half Marathon | |
| Road Relay | |
| Relays | |
| Ultimate | |
| Road Running | |
