Jaws on the floor, eyes wide in disbelief. Jamaica, the track powerhouse, just got shocked by Great Britain in the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou in the 4x100m relay. Wait, Great Britain? Since when did they get that good at relays? Beating Jamaica’s Olympic gold medalists? What?! Yes, it happened! And we’re talking about legends like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, with eight Olympic medals, and Shericka Jackson, who’s the second-fastest woman in the world in the 200m. So, how did Great Britain pull off this huge upset? Here’s the twist: that 25-year-old athlete wasn’t on Jamaica’s team. If she had been? Maybe, just maybe, the result would’ve been different. Who?

Well, here’s the thing: in the 4x100m relay, each runner does 100 meters, and Jamaica’s team—Natasha Morrison, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Tina Clayton, and Shericka Jackson—is stacked with talent. When you take their personal bests into view, one would observe that Jackson runs 10.65, Fraser-Pryce 10.60, Clayton 10.95, and Morrison 10.85. If you add them together, you would expect them to be finishing in around 43.1 seconds, but they did it in 42.33 seconds, just behind Britain and Spain. However, it could have been different if Jamaica had just added another athlete, Leah Anderson.

Leah Anderson is 25 years old, and she has been building up this season. Although she is mainly a distance runner, her 400m form has been excellent. Her best achievement of 51.15 in Arkansas on the 9th May foreshadows her potential and gives a hint of her unexploited capabilities if she’d been selected for the Jamaica relay team for the World Athletics Relays in China. Therefore, why was she not added to the team? Well, it all boiled down to her coach, Derrick Adkins, who, after careful consideration, thought it best that she sit out the event.

This wasn’t a case of injury or oversight—Adkins made the decision with Anderson’s long-term development in mind. Reflecting on their discussions, Adkins explained, “We thought about World Relays. The Jamaican federation sent out the usual forms to athletes who’ve previously committed to the country, but we decided together not to send her.” The decision was based on Anderson’s hard encounter in the World Indoor Championships this year, where she came out of the competition, physically and mentally exhausted. Adkins found the World Relays to be an opportunity for Anderson, however, he also saw that the attention should be geared towards assuring her health and confidence for the impending Jamaican national trials in June.

Adkins continued to explain why they made that particular choice, focusing on the fact that they needed a long-term strategy. Anderson, ranked fifth in the world, had also registered poorly as a result of poor nutrition, weight loss and the physical toll that came with international travel. “It wasn’t an injury issue,” Adkins clarified. “It was more dietary. Leah naturally weighs around 110 pounds, but we try to keep her at 115 for optimal performance. She made a dietary change about a month before World Indoors that just didn’t work, and the long trip to China caused her to lose more weight. She just didn’t have the energy.”

The grueling travel schedule also left her exhausted, and coupled with strategic mistakes in her race, it became clear that a return to China wouldn’t be beneficial. “This was about the long game—not just showing up for the team, but putting herself in a real position to make the team,” Adkins said, confirming their decision to prioritize her readiness for national trials in Kingston. But whereas the individual strategy was all right, it raises one important question in the air: Why did Jamaica lose?

Great Britain pulls the rug from under Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

The dream of Jamaica turned into a shock defeat in the World Athletics Relays, 5th of May 2025, at Guangzhou, China. The women’s 4x100m final was their time of reckoning, a towering cavalcade of talent, with an awe-inspiring cast. Shericka Jackson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Natasha Morrison, and an upcoming star, Tina Clayton.

Fans thought that it was game over when Shericka got the baton for the anchor leg with a slim lead. However, the other plans of Great Britain’s Success Education were different. In the last leg, Eduan came from nowhere to catch up with Spain first, then caught Shericka Jackson in the dying meters in Jamaica. The result?

Great Britain snatched gold in 42.21 seconds. Spain followed at 42.28. Jamaica, stunned, finished third in 42.33. Shericka’s disbelief at the finish line said it all—this wasn’t supposed to happen. But the warning signs had already shown on May 4 during the heats. Jamaica’s Heat 2 squad—Tina Clayton, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Tia Clayton, and Shericka Jackson—looked unbeatable on paper. Yet, poor baton exchanges and a lack of chemistry told a different story. Spain capitalized, setting a national record of 42.18 to win the heat, while Jamaica finished with 42.51, a season’s best but not enough.

Even with sprint legends like Shericka, the reigning 200m queen, and Shelly-Ann, the five-time world 100m champion, Jamaica couldn’t pull together a clean, dominant run.