Poland Win World Relays, DK Metcalf Track Star? The Wacky World Of Track & Field In 2021: Notebook

This was always going to be a season of intrigue, from uncertainty surrounding Tokyo to severely limited travel impacting the typical European circuit. However, the past 7 days has seen Poland lead the podium count as the World Relays host nation and DK Metcalf announcing his intention to qualify for the USATF Olympic Trials.

Poland Relish In An Opportunity

World Relays is typically an event that showcases the Jamaica/USA sprints rivalry, but in a world where teams from USA, Jamaica, Canada, Russia, Australia and China, are unable to travel internationally there was always a question of who would step up into that vacated space.

House money would have told you that The Netherlands or Japan would be poised to jump into that void. The Dutch are well in their golden generation while Japan finished 3rd behind USA and Jamaica in the 2019 edition of World Relays. However, as my high school coach Robert Bante would tell me, “That’s why we run the races!”.

It’s a good thing too, the anticipation of who would win their first major team event was exhilarating and the athletes absolutely delivered on those expectations.

Poland, a host nation staging an event that once looked impossible, was able to string together impressive performances that saw them lead the podium count with 4 top 3 finishes — including a 2x2x400m victory over…