After failing to make the finals last August, Canada’s 2022 World champion quartet of Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney, Jerome Blake and Andre De Grasse will be looking to make noise once again and find their way onto the podium.

Other strong teams to watch include Jamaica, Great Britain, Japan and Nigeria. The Jamaican team, like the U.S., is not as strong as they could be, with sub-9.9 athletes Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson not on the roster, but the trio of Ryiem Forde, Kadrian Goodson, and indoor 60m bronze medallist from Glasgow Ackeem Blake could be enough to get their first World Relays medal in the event since 2015.

One sneaky nation to keep an eye on could be the squad from Ghana. The Ghanaians have never won a global medal of any color in the 4x100m, but this year’s team features current all-conditions world-leader in the 100m Isaac Botsio (9.90/+2.2) alongside two teammates with impressive PBs in Benjamin Azamati (9.90) and Joseph Paul Amoah (9.94).

Women’s 4x100m: Team USA vs. the World

The women’s race feels significantly less wide open, as the U.S. contingent should be equipped to back up their world title from Budapest. The Americans, even sans Sha’Carri Richardson, features four of the nine fastest American women of the past five years in Aleia Hobbs, Melissa Jefferson, Tamari Davis and Tamara Clark. That doesn’t even include Gabby Thomas, who ran a strong third leg in the final in Budapest last year and clocked a slightly wind-aided 10.88 at Texas Relays in March.

The likely favorite for silver will be Jamaica. We won’t see the likes of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson, or Elaine Thompson-Herah, but Jamaica’s depth allows them to still put forward a team with Natasha Morrison and Alana Reid, who were the 8th- and 14th-fastest women in the world last year, respectively.

The race for bronze looks like it could come down to a battle between West African nations, as both Nigeria and Côte D’Ivoire are bringing very strong squads to the Bahamas. Nigeria is headlined by Favour Ofili, who has opened her season with windy 100m times of 10.85 and 10.78. Rosemary Chukwuma, Tima Godbless, and 100mH world record holder Tobi Amusan round out a team that could be very dangerous if they can get the baton around (something they failed to do in the heats in Budapest). For the Ivorian team, it’ll most likely be the same four runners they rolled out last year, led by longtime veterans Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith and Murielle Ahouré-Demps. Côte D’Ivoire posted the 3rd fastest time in qualifying last summer at the World Championships, but a fall on the second handoff in the final cut short their chances for the nation’s first global medal in the event.

Budapest bronze medallist Great Britain and reigning World Relays champion Italy could also make some noise, but the British team will be without anchor Daryll Neita and the winning time for Italy from Chorzów would’ve been the slowest time during qualifying in Tokyo later that year.

Men’s 4x400m: World Indoor Champs Back In Action

The men’s 4x400m is another deep field, but unlike the 4x100m, I’d say the Americans are not the favorites in this race. None of the four runners that took home gold in the final in Budapest last year will be in Nassau this weekend, and neither will 2022 400m World champion Michael Norman. The team still boasts some quality runners, namely last year’s national champion Bryce Deadmon, but it could be an uphill climb to claim their first gold in this event at World Relays since 2017.

If there is a favorite in this race, it might just be the World Indoor champions from Glasgow, Team Belgium. Led by indoor 400m champion Alexander Doom, the Belgians are bringing all four legs from the team that took down the U.S. to the Bahamas. The Botswana contingent is also looking like they could find themselves in gold medal contention as well. Their top four runners all have PBs under 44.6, and this weekend will also mark the championship debut of

Letsile Tebogo in the 400m or 4x400m. Currently sitting 2nd on the world list for 2024, behind only his teammate Bayapo Ndori, a Tebogo showcase on its own should be enough to make you tune in.

France and Great Britain, who finished with silver and bronze in Budapest, are both bringing three of their four legs from last year’s final. France will be missing Ludvy Vaillant, but they can replace him with Thomas Jordier, whose 400m PB is only 0.1 seconds slower at 45.37. For Great Britain, they get to presumably swap Rio Mitcham with national and European record holder in the 400m Matthew Hudson-Smith. Not a bad trade.

India, the surprise 5th-place finisher from Budapest, will be returning all four runners from last year. However, they’ve gotten off to a bit of a slower start to 2024 than some of their competitors, so perhaps expectations should be tampered for them heading into this one.

Canada and Jamaica are two teams in pretty similar spots when looking at the entries. They both have one clear 400m ace - for Canada it’s the fastest man ever over the indoor 400m Christopher Morales-Williams, for Jamaica it’s national record holder and indoor 400m bronze medallist from Glasgow Rusheen McDonald. Then, they each have one great runner that isn’t a 400m specialist - 800m World champ Marco Arop for Canada and 400mH world junior record holder Roshawn Clarke for Jamaica. I’d definitely lean more towards these two teams being wild card picks for the podium, but if those non-specialist legs from Arop and Clarke can be something special, they could place themselves in the medal conversation.

Women’s 4x400m: Bol Keeps Rolling

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the women’s 4x400m will probably come down to an absolute battle on the home straight between Alexis Holmes and Femke Bol. That’s what we saw in the mixed relay in Budapest (edge to Holmes) and this same event in Glasgow (edge to Bol), and it’s potentially what would’ve happened in the final of the women’s 4x400m last August if the U.S. team hadn’t been disqualified in the heats.

This edition of Team USA, alongside Holmes, features a pair of athletes with sub-50 PBs in Quanera Hayes and Kendall Ellis. Paris Peoples has the fastest PB out of the rest of the team, but both Jessica Wright and Na’Asha Robinson ran in the heats in Glasgow, so that fourth spot in the final looks like it’s up for grabs. It’s certainly not as strong of a team as we’ve seen in the past, and probably not as strong as the team we’ll see in Paris, but I’ve learned over the last year to never overlook a team with Holmes anchoring.

The Netherlands is bringing three runners from their World champion teams in Budapest and Glasgow to The Bahamas, with Bol, Lieke Klaver and Cathelijn Peeters. The fourth leg is a bit of a question mark for the Dutch team heading into this weekend, as neither Evaline Saalberg (Budapest) nor Lisanne de Witte (Glasgow) will be making the trip, and there’s a steep drop off in times behind those two. But that may not matter in the long run, because a bigger deficit going into the anchor leg just means there's more magic for Femke Bol to make. The Dutch superstar has only raced once outdoors so far this season in a glorified showcase last weekend in the nearby island nation of Curaçao, so this will basically be her true season debut as she gears up to try and win her first Olympic title later this summer.

The Jamaican team will only have one runner from their silver medal winning squad from Budapest in Nassau, but they should still be strong contenders to get on the podium. Janieve Russell, Charokee Young, Roneisha McGregor and Junelle Bromfield have all run comfortably under 51 seconds in their careers. Great Britain, bronze medallists in Glasgow, Budapest, Eugene in 2022, and the 2021 World Relays, will have their most consistent trio of Laviai Nielsen, Ama Pipi and Nicole Yeargin running this weekend.

Poland, the reigning World Relays silver medallist, and Ireland are two teams that have the potential to get into medal conversation, but both of their hopes hinge on a remarkable showing from their strongest runners. For Poland that’s the silver medallist in the 400m from Budapest, Natalia Kaczmarek, and for Ireland that’s national record holder Rhasidat Adeleke. Adeleke has been working on her speed, with a big win in the 100m last weekend over training partners Dina Asher-Smith and Julien Alfred, but she’s yet to run an open 400m this season.

Mixed 4x400m: Return of Bahamas’s Biggest Stars

The favorite for the first final of the meet has to be the host nation. The Bahamian squad has maybe the best 1-2 punch out of any nation in any event this weekend, with the 6th-fastest man all-time over 400m Steven Gardiner and the 6th-fastest woman all-time over 400m Shaunae Miller-Uibo. Both have had strong starts to their Olympic title defense campaigns after missing some time over the last few seasons and look poised to take gold on their home turf, just like they did in 2017.

Always a strong contender in this event, the team from the Dominican Republic is led by reigning 400m World champion Marileidy Paulino. After not getting the chance to defend their World title from Eugene last August, the Dominicans will be hungry to upset their Caribbean rivals. The strongest male leg on the team will most likely be 200m national record holder Alexander Ogando.