Road to Tokyo: Jamaica’s 37.80 run at London Diamond League meet pushes Nigeria out of relay qualification zone

Jamaica’s men’s 4x100m relay team reignited their Tokyo 2025 hopes with a blistering 37.80s season’s best at the London Diamond League meet, vaulting them into 15th place on the global qualification list for the World Athletics Championships.

The quartet, featuring Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson, delivered a clinical performance that not only secured one of the two remaining provisional spots but also displaced Nigeria from the top 16.

Nigeria, previously holding 15th with a 38.20s mark from 2024 and 2025, now finds itself in 17th place, behind both Jamaica and the Netherlands (37.87s).

With the qualification window closing on August 24, 2025, Nigeria must now achieve a sub-38s time—something the nation hasn’t done in decades—and set a new national record to reclaim a spot.

The setback follows Nigeria’s absence from the World Relays in Guangzhou, China, where administrative lapses led to visa issues and forfeited their chance at automatic qualification.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s relay teams are also on the brink across all relay events.

The women’s 4x100m team sits 17th and must surpass Côte d’Ivoire’s 42.63s to qualify while in the 4x400m, Nigeria men’s 4x400m is ranked 22nd and must break the 3:00.00 barrier, chasing Zambia’s 2:59.12 from the 2024 African Games.

For the women’s 4x400m team currently 19th, they will need to break 3:25 for the first time since 2014 when the team ran 3:23.41 at the World Relays in the Bahamas.

Jamaica occupies the 16th spot with the 3:24.92 the team ran at the Paris 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.

The qualification system for Tokyo 2025 follows a dual pathway: 50% of athletes qualify via entry standards, while the remaining 50% qualify through world rankings.

For relay events, the top 14 teams from the World Relays automatically qualify, with two additional spots awarded based on the world list.